''•liliiiililininiiiffiii; 



ni« 




CI^ 



Class i^_ 

Book lGk±a1^ 

Gopyiight W!_ _" 



CCE^tRIGHT OEPOSm 



Tlie Complete Story 



OF THE 



Galveston Horror 



Written by the Survivors. 



Incidents of the awful Tornado, Flood and Cyclone Disaster; Personal 
Experiences of Survivors; Horrible Looting of Dead Bodies and 
tlie Robbing of Empty Homes; Pestilence from so many Decaying 
Bodies Unbnried; Barge Captains Compelled by Armed Men to 
Tow Dead Bodies to Sea; Millions of Dollars raised to aid the 
Suffering Survivors; President McKinley Orders Army Rations and 
Army Tents issued to Survivors and orders U. S. Troops to pro- 
tect the People and Property; Tales of the Su^'vivors from Gal- 
veston; Adrift all Night on Rafts; Acts of Valor; United States 
Soldiers Drowned; Great Heroism; Great Vandalism; Great Hor- 
ror; A Second Johnstown Flood, but worse; Hundreds of Men, 
Women and Cliildrea Drowned; No way of Escape, only 



Death! Beatli! Everywhere! 



Edited by 

John Coulter, 

Formerly of the N. Y. Herald. 



Fully Illustrated with Photographs. 



UNITED PUBLISHERS OF AMERICA. 



CCT 11 1900 

Ccipyncht Aotry 



H.S^.'KbMr 



sav'N!'^ COPY. 

OlffOtH D'Vil'ION, 

OCT 15 1 900 






Copyright, 1900, by E. E. Sprague. 



PREFACE. 

IN presenting to the people of this country and the world 
a chronicle of the frightful visitation of hurricane and 
flood upon the beautiful and enterprising City of Galves- 
ton, which unparalleled calamity occurred on September 
8, 1900, the Publishers wish, to say that the utmost care 
has been taken to make the record of the catastrophe 
complete in every particular. 

No expense has been spared to obtain the facts; the 
illustrations contained in the work are from photographs 
taken by artists on the spot; the experiences of survivors 
were obtained from the victims themselves, their lan- 
guage being faithfully reported, while what they wrote 
is reproduced without a single change being made. 

The situation in the stricken City of Galveston is por- 
trayed day by day exactly as it existed, and is not the 
product of imaginings of writers who put down what the 
conditions should have been; the storm has been followed 
from its inception, just south of the island of San Do- 
mingo, to Galveston, through Texas and then along its 
course until it disappeared in the broad Atlantic off the 
Eastern coast; the horrors of the gale, the cruel killing 
of thousands by the winds and waters, the wrecking of 
thousands of buildings and the drowning of helpless men, 
women and children, are all given in graphic and pictur- 
esque language. 

The fearful mutilation of the dead by the ghouls and 
vandals who afterward despoiled the corpses of their 
valuables and the swift vengeance which followed these 
unutterable crimes when the troops shot the vampires 
and harpies by the score, are told in the most vivid way; 



PREFACE. 

the disposal of the dead by casting their bodies into the 
sea, burying them hastily in the sands along the beach or 
cremating them by burning upon vast funeral pyres 
erected in the principal streets of the city are painted in 
the ghastly colors of truth; the wave of insanity which 
swept over the city and claimed hundreds who had es- 
caped the perils of the deluge and the hurricane is set 
forth most graphically. 

What caused the mighty elemental disturbance, the 
possibilities of its recurrence and the danger which con- 
stantly hangs over other seacoast cities are given in de- 
tail ; the pestilential conditions set up in Galveston by the 
catastrophe, the panic-stricken people flying from the 
scene of death and desolation, the horrible spectacle of 
hundreds of dead bodies floating in Galveston bay and the 
Gulf of Mexico, the generous response of the people of 
the United States to the appeal for help — these are pic- 
tured with minuteness. 

Nothing is wanting to make this work reliable and 
correct; it contains a full list of the identified dead, which 
is a feature no other publication has been able to do; in 
short, it is the story, well and accurately told, of a dis- 
aster which has not its like since the world began. 

The Publishers are confident this volume will meet the 
approval of the country. 

THE PUBLISHERS. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



Preface 4 

CHAPTER I. 
West Indian Hurricane Descends Upon Galveston, Causing 
Immense Losses of Life and Property — Catastrophe Unpar- 
alleled in the History of the World — A Night of Horrors and 

Suffering 33 

CHAPTER II. 
Sad Scenes in All Parts of the Ruined City — Corpses Everywhere 
— A Sombre, Solemn Sunday — People Apathetic, Dejected and 

Heartbroken 51 

CHAPTER III. 
Crowds of Refugees at Houston — Fed and Housed in Tents — Regu- 
lar Soldiers Drowned — Government Property Lost — Fears for 

Galveston's Future 64 

CHAPTER rV. 
Thrilling Experiences of People During the Great Storm — Eighty- 
five Persons Perish by Being Blown from a Train — Adventures 

of Survivors at Galveston 89 

CHAPTER V. 
Relief Sent from All Parts of the World as Soon as the True Situa- 
tion of Affairs Was Made Kuown — Millions of Dollars Sub- 
scribed and Thousands of Carloads of Supplies Forwarded to 

the Desolated City 117 

CHAPTER VL 
Cremating Bodies by the Hundreds in the Streets of Galveston — 
Negroes Faint While Handling the Decayed Corpses — How 

Some of Those Rescued Escaped with Their Lives 133 

CHAPTER VII. 
Lives Lost and Property Damage Sustained Outside of Galveston — 
One Thousand Victims and Millions of Value in Crops Swept 

Away — Estimates Made 149 

CHAPTER VIII. 
Business Resumed at Galveston In a Small Way on the Sixth Day 
After the Catastrophe — "Galveston Shall Rise Again" — How the 

City Looked on Saturday, One Week After the Flood 159 

CHAPTER IX. 
Galveston Nine Days After — Great Changes Apparent — Life in a 
Business Exhibited — Systematic Efforts to Obtain Names. ... 
of the Dead 172 

CHAPTER X. 
Magnitude of the Relief Necessary — Twenty Thousand Persons to 
Be Clothed and Fed— System of Relief Organization — How the 
Storm Effected Trade 180 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER XI. 
Insanity Follows Frightful Sufferings of the Poor Victims — Five 
Hundred Demented Ones — Indifferent to the Loss of Relatives.. 188 
CHAPTER XII. 
Serious Danger from Fire — Scarcity of Boats to Carry People to the 
Main Land — Laborers Imported into Galveston — Untold Suffer- 
ings on Bolivar Island — Experience of a Chicago Man 196 

CHAPTER XIIL 
Two Women Tell How They Were Affected at Galveston — One Ar- 
rived After the Catastrophe, While the Other Was in the Storm 

from Beginning to End 206 

CHAPTER XIV. 
Twenty Thousand People Fed Every Day at a Cost of $40,000— Inci- 
dents at the Relief Stations — Applicants and Their Peculiarities 

— Great Mortality Among the Negroes 216 

CHAPTER XV. 
Total Dead and Missing at Galveston and Vicinity 8,661 — Five 
Million Dollars in Relief Necessary to Carry the Survivors 

Through the Fall and Winter to Spring 246 

CHAPTER XVI. 
Galveston's Inhabitants Refuse to Heed the Lessons Taught by 
Their Experiences — Carelessness in Failing to Provide Against 

the Recurrence of Catastrophes 261 

CHAPTER XVII. 
Galveston's Storm Flies Over the United States and Does Great 
Damage — Many Lives Lost — It Finally Disappears in the At- 
lantic Ocean 267 

CHAPTER XVIII. 
The World Not So Heartless as Supposed — People Give Generously 
to Aid the Suffering — A Social Phenomenon — Value of the 

United States Weather Bureau 271 

CHAPTER XIX. 
Galveston Island Directly in the Path of Storms, With No Way of 
Escape — What is the City's Future? — All Coast Cities in Dan- 
ger — New York Will Be Flooded — Hurricane Foretold — Galves- 
ton's Settlement— Storm Will Recur 281 

CHAPTER XX. 
Comparisons Between the Galveston and Johnstown Disasters — 
The Latter Not So Horrible in Its Features — Frightful Plight 

of the Texas Victims 294 

CHAPTER XXI. 
Great Calamities Caused by Flood and Gale During Past Century — 

Millions of Lives Lost Through the Fury of the Elements 299 

CHAPTER XXH. 
Overwhelming of Johnston, Pa., by the Waters from Conemaugh 
Lake — One of the Most Peculiar Happenings in History — Actual 
Number of Deaths Will Never Be Known — About Twenty-five 

Hundred Bodies Found 321 

CHAPTER XXIII. 
Not More Than Half the Bodies of Victims Identified — Hundreds of 
Corpses of the Unknown and Nameless Cast Into the Sea — 
Others Buried in the Sand and Cremated — List of Identi- 
fications ^ 361 




z 
o 

h 

00 

W 
> 

< 
O 

h 
< 

w 
P 



X 
h 



U 

< 




VANDALS ROBBING THE DEAD 




GATHERING THE KILLED AND INJURED AFTER THE STORM 




DROWNING OF GALVESTON SUFFERERS BY THE TIDAL WAVE 




FURY OF THE STORM AND DESPERATE PREDICAMENT OF 

RESIDENTS 




o 

H 

V) 

Z 

o 

h 
CO 

> 

< 
O 

M 



o 

O 
Q 

CO 

< 
Q 

< 




SURVIVORS, NEARLY STARVED, RANSACKING A GROCERY STORE 

FOR FOOD 



THE GALVESTON HORROR. 

CHAPTER I. 

West Indian Htirricanc Descends Upon Galveston, Causing Immense 
Losses of Life and Pro2)erty — Catastrophe Unparalleled in the 
History of the World — A Night of Horrors and Suffering. 

THE frightful West Indian hurricane which descended 
upon the beautiful, prosperous and progressive, but ill- 
fated, city of Galveston, on Saturday, September 8, 1900, 
causing the loss of many thousands of lives and the 
destruction of millions of dollars' worth of property, and 
then ravaged Central and Western Texas, killing several 
hundred people and inflicting damage which cost mil- 
lions to repair, has had no parallel in history. 

When the gale approached the island upon which Gal- 
veston it situated, it lashed the waves of the Gulf of Mex- 
ico into a tremendous fury, causing them to rise to all but 
mountain height, and then it was that, combining their 
forces, the wind and water pounced upon their prey. 

In the short space of four hours the entire site of the 
city was covered by angry waters, while the gale blew at 
the rate of one hundred miles an hour; business houses, 
public buildings, churches, residences, charitable institu- 
tions, and all other structures gave way before the 
pressure of the wind and the fierce onslaught of the 
raging flood, and those which did not crumble altogether 
were so injured, in the majority of cases, that they w^ere 
torn down. 

Such a night of horror as the unfortunate inhabitants 
were compelled to pass has fallen to the lot of few since 
the records of histoi^y were first opened. In the early 
evening, when the water first began to invade Galveston 
Island, the people residing along the beach and near it 

33 



34 THE WEST INDIAN HURRICANE. 

fled in fear from their homes and sought the highest 
points in the city as places of refuge, taking noth- 
ing but the smaller articles in their houses with them. 
On and on crawled the flood, until darkness had set in, 
and then, as though possessed of a fiendish vindictive- 
ness, hastened its speed and poured over the surface of 
the town, completely submerging it — covering the most 
elevated ground to a dei)th of five feet and the lower por- 
tions ten and twelve feet. 

The hurricane was equally malignant, if not more 
fiendish and cruel, and tore great buildings and beautiful 
homes to pieces with evident delight, scattering the 
debris far and wide; telegraph and telephone lines were 
thrown down, railvv^ay tracks and bridges — the latter 
connecting the island and city with the mainland — torn 
up, and the mighty, tangled mass of Avires, bricks, sec- 
tions of roofs, sidewalks, fences and other things hurled 
into the main thoroughfares and cross streets, rendering 
it impossible for pedestrians to make their way along 
for many days after the waters and gale had subsided. 

Forty thousand people — men, women and children — 
cowered in terror for eight long hours, the intense black- 
ness of the night, the swishing and lapping of the waves, 
the demoniac howling and shrieking of the wind and the 
indescribable and awfvil crashing, tearing and rending 
as the houses, hundreds at a time, were wrecked and shat- 
tered, ever sounding in their ears. Often, too, the friendly 
shelter where families had taken refuge would be swept 
away, plunging scores and scores of helpless ones into 
the mad current which flowed through ever^^ street of 
the town, and fathers and mothers were compelled to 
undergo the agony of seeing their children drown, with 
no possibilitj' of rescue; husbands lost their wives and 
wives their husbands, and the elements were only 



THE WEST INDIAN HURRICANE. 35 

merciful when they destroyed an entire family at once. 

All during that fearful night of Saturday until the gray 
and gloomy dawn of Sunday broke upon the sorrow- 
stricken city, the entire population of Galveston stood 
face to face with grim death in its most horrible shapes; 
they could not hope for anything more than the venge- 
ance of the hurricane, and as they realized that with 
every passing moment souls were being hurried into eter- 
nity, is it at all wonderful that, after the strain was over 
and all danger gone, reason should finally be unseated 
and men and women break into the unmeaning gayety of 
the maniac? 

Not one inhabitant of Galveston old enough to realize 
the situation had any idea other than that death was to 
be the fate of all before another day appeared, and when 
this long and weary suspense, to which was added the 
chill of the night and the growing pangs of hunger, was 
at last broken by the first gleams of the light of the Sab- 
bath morn, the latter was not entirely welcome, for the 
face of the sun was hidden by morose and ugly clouds, 
from which dripped, at dreary intervals, cold and gusty 
showers. 

Thousands were swallowed up during the darkness and 
their bodies either mangled- and mutilated by the wreck- 
age which had been tossed everywhere, left to decompose 
in the slimy ooze deposited by the flood or forced to fol- 
low the waves in their sullen retirement to the waters of 
the gulf. 

Dejection and despondency succeeded fright; the 
majority of the business men of the city had suffered 
such losses that thej were overcome by apathy; nearly 
all the homes of the people were in ruins; the streets 
were impassable, and the dead lay thickly on every side; 
all telegraph and telephone wires were down, and as 



36 THE WEST INDIAN HURRICANE. 

miles and miles of railroad track had disappeared and the 
bridges carried away, there was absolutely no means 
of communication with the outer world, except by boat. 
The strange spectacle was then presented of the richest 
city of its size in the richest country in the w^orld Ijing 
prostrate, helpless and hopeless, a prey to ghouls, vul- 
tures, harpies, thieves, thugs and outlaws of every sort; 
its people starving, and the putrid bodies of its dead 
breeding pestilence. 

SKETCH OF THE CITY OF GALVESTON. 

The City of Galveston is situated on the extreme east 
end of the Island of Galveston. It is six square miles in 
area, its present limits being the limits of the original 
corporation and the boundaries of the land purchased 
from the Republic of Texas by Colonel Menard in 1838 
for the sum of |50,000. Colonel Menard associated with 
himself several others, who formed a town site company 
with a capital of |1,000,000. The City of Galveston was 
platted on April 20, 1838, and seven days later the lots 
were put on the market. The streets of Galveston are 
numbered from one to fl.fty-seven across the island from 
north to south, and the avenues are known by the letters 
of the alj^habet, extending east and w^est lenglhwise of 
the island. 

The founders of the city donated to the public every 
tenth block through the center of the city from east to 
west for public parks. They also gave three sites for pub- 
lic markets and set aside one entire block for a college, 
three blocks for a girls' seminary, and gave to every Chris- 
tian denomination a valuable site for a church. 

The growth of the city in population was slow until 
after the war of the rebellion. It is a remarkable fact 
that for the population Galveston does double the amount 



THE WEST INDIAN HURRICANE. 37. 

of business of any city in America. The population in 
1890 was 30,000, showing an increase of over 400 per cent 
in thirty years. At the time of the disaster the popula- 
tion was estimated at 40,000. 

Galveston has. over two miles of completed wharfs 
along the bay front and others under construction, all of 
which are equipped w^ith modern appliances. The Gal- 
veston Wharf Company, which owns practically all the 
w^harfage, has expended millions during the last five years 
for improvements in the way of elevators and facilities 
for handling grain and cotton. During the cotton season, 
Sept. 1 to March 31 inclusive, large ocean-going craft line 
the wharves, often thirty or more steamers and as many 
large sailing vessels being accommodated at one time, 
besides the numerous smaller vessels and sailing craft 
doing a coastwise trade. 

Manufacturing is one of the chief supports of the city. 
In this branch of industry Galveston leads any city in the 
State of Texas by 50 per cent in number and more than 
100 per cent in capital employed and product turned out. 
Of factories the city has 306, employing a capital aggre- 
gating 110,886,900, with an output of |12,000,000 a year. 

The jetty construction forms one of the chief features 
of its commercial advantages. The construction began 
in 1885, progressing slowly for five years, when the desire 
of the citizens for a first-class harbor led to the formation 
of a permanent committee, which succeeded in getting a 
bill through Congress authorizing an expenditure of |6,- 
200,000 on the harbor. The bill provided that there should 
be two parallel stone jetties extending nearly six miles 
out into the gulf, one from the east point of Galveston 
Island, the other from the west point of Bolivar Penin- 
sula. The jetties are fifty feet wide at the botton and slope 
gradually to five feet above mean low tide, and are thirty- 



38 THE IVEST INDIAN HURRICANE. 

five feet wide at the top, with a railroad track running 
their entire length, which railroad is the property of the 
Federal Government. The immediate effect of early con- 
struction of the jetties was to remove the inner bar, which 
formerly had thirteen feet of water over it, and which 
now has over twenty-one feet of water. 

The principal business street of Galveston is the 
Strand, which is of made land 150 feet from the water 
of the bay, in the extreme northern end of the city. Be- 
sides being the principal port of Texas, Galveston is the 
financial center of the State, and some of the largest busi- 
ness houses in Texas have their offices in the Strand. 
Among the business houses on this street are the fol- 
lowing: 

Sealy, Hutchins & Co., bankers; most modern banking 
building in Texas; four-story structure, in which is also 
located the office of the Mallory steamship line, and also 
the offices of Congressman E. B. Hawley, one of the Re- 
publican leaders in the State. 

H. Kempner, cotton broker; four-story brick building. 

First National Bank, J. Runge, President. Mr. Runge 
is also President of the Cotton Exchange, President of 
the Galveston Cotton mills, and President of the City 
Railway Company. 

W. L. Moody & Co., bankers and cotton factors; four- 
story brick. Mr. Moody is an intimate friend of W. J. 
Bryan and periodically entertains him at Lake Surprise, 
a duck hunting ground fifteen miles inland from Galves- 
ton; a famous hunting ground. 

General offices Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe Railway 
and the Galveston, Henderson and Houston Railway, 
which is the gulf terminus of the International and Great 
Northern Railway. 

Adoue & Lobit, bankers; four-story brick. 



THE WEST INDIAN HURRICANE. 39 

Island City Savings Bank and Gulf City Trust Com- 
pany, M. Lasker, President; four-story brick. 

Texas Loan and Trust Company and Flint & Rogers, 
cotton factors; four-story brick building. 

Mensing Bros., wholesale grocers; four-story brick. 

Western Union Telegraph Company and Mexican Cable 
Company; four-story brick building. 

Galveston Dry Goods Company; four-story brick. 

Hullman, Owen & Co., wholesale grocers; four-story 
brick building. 

Wallace, Landis & Co., wholesale grocers; five-story 
brick. 

L. W. Levy & Co., wholesale liquor dealers; four-story 
brick. 

Schneider Bros., wholesale liquor dealers; four-story 
brick. 

Beers, Kennison & Co., general insurance agents in 
Texas for several large companies; four-story brick. 

Concisely put and with no waste of words, the follow- 
ing facts comprise the history of the unfortunate city: 

1. It is the richest city of its size in the United States. 

2. Is the largest and most extensively commercial city 
of Texas. 

3. Is the gateway of an enormous trade, situated as it 
is between the great West granaries and Europe. 

4. Lies two miles from the northeast corner of the 
Island of Galveston. 

5. Is a port of entry and the principal seaport of the 
State. 

6. Its harbor is the best, not only on the coast line of 
Texas, but also on the entire gulf coast from the mouth 
of the Mississippi to the Rio Grande. 

7. Is the nearest and most accessible first-class seaport 
for the States of Texas, Kansas, New Mexico and Colo- 



40 THE WEST INDIAN HURRICANE. 

rado, the Indian Territory and the Territory of Arizona 
and parts of the States and Territories adjoining those 
just mentioned. 

8. Is to-day the gulf terminus of most of the great rail- 
way systems entering Texas. 

9. Ranks third among the cotton ports of the United 
States. 

10. Its port charges are as low os or lower than any 
other port in the United States. 

11. Is the only seaport on the gulf coast west of the 
Mississippi into which a. vessel drawing more than 10 feet 
of water can enter. 

12. Has steamship lines to Liverpool, New York, New 
Orleans and the ports of Texas as far as the Mexican 
boundary. 

13. Has harbor area of 24 feet depth and over 1,300 
acres; of 30 feet depth and over 463 acres (the next largest 
harbor on the Texas coast has only 100 acres of 24 feet 
depth of water). 

14. Has the lowest maximum temperature of any city 
in Texas. 

15. Has the finest beach in America and is a famous 
summer and winter resort. 

16. Has public free school system unexcelled in the 
United States. 

17. Has never been visited by any epidemic disease 
since the yellow fever scourge of 1867. 

18. Has forty miles of street railways in operation. 

19. Has electric lights throughout the city (plant 
owned by city). 

20. It has millions invested in docks, warehouses, grain 
elevators, flouring mills, marine ways, manufactories and 
mercantile houses. 



THE WEST INDIAN HURRICANE. 41 

THE MOST PEOMISING TOWN IN THE SOUTH. 

"Galveston was the most promising town in the South, 
so far as shipping is concerned," said Thomas B. Bryan, 
the founder of North Galveston, the day after the 
disaster occurred. "There has been persistent op- 
position to it on the part of a railroad that 
wished the transportation of cotton and other produce 
farther east, but finally the geographical position of Gal- 
veston triumphed. Even Collis P. Huntington, the rail- 
road magnate, succumbed, and later he inaugurated im- 
provements in Galveston on the most colossal scale, in- 
volving an expenditure of many millions of dollars. One 
of the last announcements Mr. Huntington made before 
his death was that Galveston would become the greatest 
shipping port in America if money could accomplish it. 
At the time I was in Galveston, a few weeks ago, there 
was an army of workmen employed by the Southern Pa- 
cific Railroad constructing gTeat docks and wharves, 
which were to eclipse any on the globe. 

"Some conception of Galveston can be formed by sup- 
posing the business district of Chicago — say from Lake 
to Twenty-second street — ^w^ere to extend out into the lake 
on a pier for a distance of three miles and at a height 
above the water varying from three to seven, and possi- 
bly, in some places, nine feet. My own observation of 
Galveston induced my taking hold of the nearest eligible 
elevated locality for residences, which is North Galves- 
ton^ sixteen miles from the city proper. It has an eleva- 
tion above the water of fifteen to twenty feet more than 
Galveston, and is free from inundation. No news has 
reached me from North Galveston, and, though damage 
may have been done by wind, I am confident none can 
be done by water or waves." 



42 THE WEST INDIAN HURRICANE. 

HOW THE HUKKICANE ORIGINATED. 

Storms which move with the velocity of that which 
swept Galveston and which are common to the southern 
and southeastern coasts of the United States invariably 
originate, according to Weather Forecaster H. J. Cox, 
of the United States Weather Bureau at Chicago, in "the 
doldrums," or that region in the ocean w^here calms 
abound. In this particular instance the place was south 
of the West Indies and north of the equator. The re- 
gion of the doldrums varies in breadth from sixty to sev- 
eral hundred miles, and at different seasons shifts its ex- 
treme limits between 5 degrees south and 15 degrees 
north. It is always overhung by a belt of clouds which 
is gathered by opposing currents of the trade winds. 

"The storm which swept Galveston and the surround- 
ing country, I should say, originated at a considerable 
distance south of the West Indies, in this belt of calms," 
said Forecaster Cox the Monday night following the ca- 
tastrophe. 

"It was caused by two strong currents meeting at an 
angle, and this caused the whirling motion which finally 
spent its force on the coast of Texas. It is seldom that 
a storm originating in the doldrums moves so far inland 
as did this one, but it is not, however, unprecedented. 
The reason this storm reached so far as Galveston was 
that the northwesterly wind moved about twice as fast 
as it usually does before reaching land. Usually the force 
of these winds are spent on the coast of Florida and 
sometimes they reach as far north as North Carolina. 
When they strike the land at these points they are given 
a northeasterly direction. 

"This storm missed the eastern coast of the United 
States, and consequently was deflected to the west. Thun- 



THE WEST INDIAN HURRICANE. 43 

derstorms are prevailing in Kansas and all of the district 
just north of the course of the storm, which is the natural 
result after such commotion of the elements. The con- 
ditions of the land are such about Galveston that when 
the storm reached that far it had no possible means of 
escape, and hence the dire results. If there had been a 
chance for the wind to move further west along the coast 
it would in all probability have passed Galveston, giving 
the place no more than a severe shaking up. In this event 
the worst effect would in all probability have been felt on 
the eastern coast of Mexico." 

It was an absolute impossibility for anyone to form 
an idea of the extent and magnitude of the disaster within 
a week of its occurrence. The morning of Sunday, when 
the wind and the waves had subsided, the streets of the 
city were found clogged with debris of all sorts. The 
people of Galveston could not realize for several days 
what had happened. Four thousand houses had been 
entirely demolished and hardly a building in the city 
was fit for habitation. 

The people were apathetic; they wandered around the 
streets in an aimless sort of way, unable to do anything 
or make preparations to repair the great damage done. 
The Monday following the catastrophe, Galveston was 
practically in the hands of thieves, thugs, ghouls, vam- 
pires, and bandits, some of them women, w^ho robbed the 
dead, mutilated the corpses which were lying every- 
where, ransacked business houses and residences and 
created a reign of terror, which lasted until the officers in 
command of the force of regulars stationed at the beach 
barracks sent a company of men to patrol the streets. 
The governor of the state ordered out all the regiments 
of the National Guard and various associations of busi- 



44 THE WEST INDIAN HURRICANE. 

ness men also supplied men, who assisted the soldiers 
in doing patrol duty in the city and suburbs. 

The depredations of the lawless element were of an 
inconceivably brutal character. Unprotected women, 
whether found upon the streets or in their houses, were 
subjected to outrage or assault and robbed of their cloth- 
ing and jewelry. Pedestrians were held up on the public 
thoroughfare in broad daylight and compelled to give up 
all valuables in their possession. The bodies of the dead 
were despoiled of everything and in their haste to secure 
valuables the ghouls would mutilate the corpses, cutting 
off fingers to obtain the rings thereon and amputating 
the ears of the women to get the earrings worn therein. 

The majority of the thieves and vampires belonged in 
the city of Galveston and were reinforced by desperadoes 
from outside towns, like Houston, Austin, and New Or- 
leans, who took advantage of the rush to the city imme- 
diately after the disaster, obtaining free transportation 
on the railroad and steamers upon a pretense that they 
were going to Galveston for the purpose of working with 
relief parties and the gangs assigned for burial of the 
dead. Their outrages became so flagrant and the people 
of the city became so terrified in consequence of their 
depredations that the city authorities unable to cope 
with them, most of the officers of the police department 
having been victims of the flood, that an appeal was made 
to the governor to send state troops and procure the 
preservation of order. Captain Rafferty, commanding 
Battery O of the First Regiment of Artillery, U. S. A., 
was also implored to lend his aid in putting down the 
lawless bands, and he accordingly sent all the men in 
his command who had not met death in the gale. 

There was some delay in getting the state troops to 
Galveston because so many miles of railroad had been 



THE WEST INDIAN HURRICANE. 45 

washed away, the Adjutant General being compelled to 
notify some companies of militia by courier, but Captain 
Rafferty ordered his men on duty at once, with instruc- 
tions to promptly shoot all persons found despoiling the 
dead. Most of the vampires were negroes, some of them, 
however, being white women, the latter being as savage 
and merciless in their treatment of the dead as the most 
abandoned of their male companions. 

The regulars were put on duty on Tuesday night and 
before morning had shot several of the thugs, who were 
executed on the spot when found in the act of robbery. 
In every instance the pockets of the harpies slain by the 
United States troops were found filled with jewelry and 
other valuables, and in some cases, notably that of one 
negro, fingers were found in their possession which had 
been cut from the hands of the dead, the vampires being 
in such a hurry that they could not wait to tear the rings 
off. On Wednesday evening the government troops came 
across a gang of fifty desperadoes, who were despoiling 
the bodies of the dead found enmeshed in the debris of a 
large apartment house. With commendable promptness 
the regulars put the ghouls under arrest and finding the 
proceeds of their robberies in their possession lined them 
up against a brick wall and without ceremony shot every 
one of them. In cases where the villains were not killed 
at the first fire, the sergeant administered coup de grace. 
Many of the thugs begged piteously for mercy, but no 
attention was paid to their feelings and they suffered 
the same stern fate as the rest. 

When the state troops arrived in the city they took 
the same severe measures and the result was that within 
forty-eight hours the city was as safe as it had ever been. 
The police arrested every suspicious character and the 
jail and cells at the police station were filled to overflow- 



46 THE WEST INDIAN HURRICANE. 

ing. These people were deported as soon as possible and 
notified that if they returned they would be shot without 
warning. The temper of the citizens of Galveston was 
such that they would not temporize in any case with 
those who Avere neither criminals or inclined to work. 
Every able-bodied man in town was impressed for duty in 
relief and burial parties and whenever an individual re- 
fused to do the work required he was promptly shot. 
By Thursday morning all the men required had been ob- 
tained and relief and burial parties were filled to the 
quota, deemed necessary and the work of disposing of 
the bodies of the dead, administering to the wants of the 
wounded and the clearing of the streets of the debris 
was proceeding satisfactorily. 

The dead lay in the streets and vacant places in hun- 
dreds and the heat of the sun began to have its natural 
effect. Decomposition set in and the stench became un- 
bearable. At first an effort was made to identify the 
corpses, but it was soon found that work could not be 
proceeded with, as any delay imperilled the living. Fears 
entertained in regard to pestilence were speedily veri- 
fied and the people of the city were taken ill by scores. 
It was difficult to obtain men to perform the duty of 
burying the bloated corpses of the victims of the catas- 
trophe and consequently the city authorities ordered that 
the dead be loaded on barges, taken a few miles out to 
sea, weighted and throv/n into the water. The ground 
had become so watersoaked that it was impossible to 
dig graves or trenches for the reception of the bodies, 
although in many instances people buried relatives and 
friends in their yards and the ground surrounding their 
residence. Along the beach hundreds of corpses were 
buried in the sand, but the majority of the burials 
were at sea. By Wednesday night 2,500 bodies had been 



THE WEST INDIAN HURRICANE. 47 

cast into the water, while about 500 had been interred 
Avithin the city limits. Precautions were taken, however, 
to mark the graves and when the ground had dried suffi- 
ciently the bodies were disinterred and taken to the vari- 
ous cemeteries where, after burial, suitable memorials 
were erected to mark their last resting place. No at- 
tempts were made at identification after Wednesday, 
lists being simply made of the number of victims. The 
graves of those buried in the sand were marked by head- 
boards with the inscriptions, "White man, aged forty;" 
"White woman, aged twenty-five," and "male" or "fe- 
nlale" child, as the case might be. 

So accustomed did the burial parties become to the 
handling of the dead that they treated the bodies as 
though they were merely carcasses of animals and not 
bodies of human beings and they were dumped into the 
trenches prepared for their reception without ceremony 
of any kind. The excavations were then filled up as 
hurriedly as possible, the sand being packed down tight- 
ly. This might have seemed inhuman,' unfeeling, and 
brutal, but the exigencies of the situation demanded that 
the corpses be put out of the way as speedily as possible. 
Great difficulty was experienced in securing men to 
transport bodies to the wharves where the barges lay, 
and it was practically an impossibility to get anyone to 
touch the bodies of the negro victims, decomposition hav- 
ing set in earlier than in the cases of the whites, and 
had it not been that the members of the fire department 
volunteered their services the remains of the negToes 
would have remained unburied for a longer time than 
they were. Finally, however, patience ceased to be a 
virtue and orders were given the guards to shoot any 
man vrho refused to do his duty under the circumstances. 



48 THE WEST INDIAN HURRICANE. 

The result of this was that the beginning of Wednesday 
there was less delay in the matter of disposing of the dead. 
However, in spite of the activity of the burial parties, 
the work of clearing the streets of corpses was a most 
tedious one. 

FORECAST OFFICIAL'S REPORT ON THE STORM. 

The forecast official of the United States Weather Bu- 
reau at Galveston made the following report, September 
14, on the storm: 

"The local office of the United States weather bureau 
received the first message in regard to this storm at 4 
p. m., September 4. It was then moving northward over 
Cuba. Each day thereafter until the West India hur- 
ricane struck Galveston bulletins were posted by the 
United States weather bureau officials giving the pro- 
gressive movements of the disturbance. 

"September 6 the tropical storm had moved up over 
southern Florida, thence it changed its course and moved 
westward in the gulf and was central off the Louisiana 
coast the morning of the 7th, when northwest storm 
warnings were ordered up for Galveston. The morning 
of the 8th the storm had increased in energy and was 
still moving westward, and at 10:10 a. m. the northwest 
storm warnings were changed to northeast. Then was 
when the entire island was in apparent danger. The 
telephone at the United States weather bureau office was 
busy until the wires went down; many could not get 
the use of the telephone on account of the line being busy. 
People came to the office in droves inquiring about the 
weather. About the same time the following informa- 
tion Avas given to all alike: 

" 'The tropical storm is now in the gulf, south or south- 



THE WEST INDIAN HURRICANE. 49 

west of ns; the winds will shift to the northeast-east 
and probably to the southeast by morning, increasing in 
energy. If you reside in low parts of the city, move to 
higher grounds.' " 

^'Prepare for the worst, which is yet to come," were 
the only consoling words of the weather bureau officials 
at Galveston from morning until night of the 8th, when 
no information further could be given out. 

The local forecast official and one observer stayed at 
the office throughout the entire storm, although the 
building was wrecked. The forecast official and one 
observer were out taking tide observations about 4 a. m., 
September 9. Another observer left after he had sent 
the last telegram which could be gotten off, it being filed 
at Houston over the telephone wires about 4 p. m. of the 
8th. Over half the city was covered with tide water by 
3 p. m. One of the observers left for home at about 4 
p. m., after he had done all he could, as telephone wires 
were then going down. The entire city was then covered 
with water from one to five feet deep. On his way home 
he saw hundreds of people and he informed all he could 
that the worst was still to come, and people who could 
not hear his voice on account of the distance he motioned 
them to go downtown. 

The lowest barometer by observation was 28.53 inches 
at 8:10 p. m., September 8, but the barometer went slight- 
ly lower than this, according to the barograph. The tide 
at about 8 p. m. stood from six to fifteen feet deep through- 
out the city, with the wind blowing slightly over a hun- 
dred miles an hour. The highest wind velocity by the 
anemometer was ninety-six miles from the northeast at 
5:15 p. m., and the extreme velocity was a hundred miles 
an hour at about that time. The anemometer blew down 
at this time and the wind was still higher later, when it 



50 THE WEST INDIAN HURRICANE. 

shifted to the east and southeast, when the observer esti- 
mated that it blew a gale of between 110 and 120 miles. 
There was an apparent tidal wave of from four to six 
feet about 8 p. m., when the wind shifted to the east and 
southeast, that carried off many houses which had stood 
the tide up to that time. 

The observer believed from the records he managed 
to save that the hurricane moved inland near Galveston, 
going up the Brazos Valley. 

The warnings of the United States Weather Bureau 
were the means of thousands of lives being saved through 
the hurricane. It was so severe, however, that it was 
impossible to prepare for such destruction. The observer 
of the United States Weather Bureau at Galveston, to 
relieve apprehension, stated on September 14 that the 
barometer had gone up to about the normal, and there 
were no indications of another storm following. 



CHAPTER II. 

Sad Scenes in All Parts of the Eiiiued City— Corpses Everywhere — A 
Sombre, Solemn Suutiay — People Apathetic, Dejected and Heart- 
broken. 

THE surviving people of Galveston did not awaken from 
sleep on Sunday morning, for they had not slept the 
night before. For many weary hours they had stood 
face to face with death, and knew that thousands had 
yielded up their lives and that millions of dollars worth 
of property had been destroyed. 

There was not a building in Galveston which was not 
either entirely destroyed or damaged, and the people of 
the city lived in the valley of the shadow of death, help- 
less and hopeless, deprived of all hope and ambition — 
merely waiting for the appearance of the ofiicial death 
roll. 

Confusion and chaos reigned everywhere; death and 
desolation were on all sides; wreck and ruin were the 
only things visible wherever the eye might rest; and 
with business entirely suspended and no other occupa- 
tion than the search for and burial of the dead it was 
strange that the thoroughfares and residence streets 
were not filled with insane victims of the hurricane's 
frightful visit. 

For days the people of Galveston knew there was dan- 
ger ahead ; they were w^arned repeatedly, but they 
laughed at all fears, business went on as usual, and when 
the blow came it found the city unprepared and without 
safeguards. 

Owing to the stupefaction following the awful catas- 
trophe, the people were in no condition, either physical or 

51 



52 . SAD SCENES IN THE RUINED CITY. 

mental, to provide for themselves, and therefore 
depended upon the outside world for food and clothing. 

The inhabitants of Galveston needed immediate relief, 
but how they were to get it was a mystery, for Galveston 
was not yet in touch with the outside world by rail .or 
sea. The city was sorely stricken, and appealed to the 
country at large to send food, clothing and water. The 
waterworks were in ruins and the cisterns all blown 
away, so that the lack of water was one of the most seri- 
ous of the troubles. 

Never did a storm work more cruelly. All the electric 
light and telegraph i^oles were prostrated and the streets 
were littered with timbers, slate, glass and every con- 
ceivable character of debris. There was hardly a hab- 
itable house in the entire city, and nearly every business 
house was either wrecked entirely or badly damaged. 

On Monday there were deaths from hunger and 
exposure, and the list swelled rapidly. People were liv- 
ing as best they could — in the ruins of their homes, in 
hotels, in schoolhouses, in railway stations, in churches, 
in the streets by the side of their beloved dead. 

So great was the desolation one could not imagine a 
more sorrowful place. Street cars were not running; 
no trains could reach the town; only sad-eyed men and 
women walked about the streets; the dead and wounded 
monopolized the attention of those capable of doing any- 
thing whatever, and the city was at the mercy of thieves 
and ruffians. 

All the fine churches were in ruins. 

From Tremont to P street, thence to the beach, not a 
vestige of a residence was to be seen. 

In the business section of the city the water was from 
three to ten feet deep in stores, and stocks of all kinds, 
including foodstuffs, were total losses. It was a com- 



SAD SCENES IN THE RUINED CITY. 53 

mon sight to see womeu and children emerging from once 
comfortable and happy homes, dazed and bleeding from 
wounds, the women wading neck deep in water with 
babies in their arms. 

Scenes in the streets of the practically ruined city on 
Sunday and Monday were pitiable and pathetic. Shriek- 
ing and screaming women, many of them bruised and 
bleeding, bearing the lifeless forms of children in their 
arms; men, broken-hearted and sobbing, bewailing the 
loss of their wives and children; and submerged streets 
filled with floating debris and bodies of the victims of the 
storm, constituted part of the spectacle. Nothing but 
death, desolation and destruction were apparent. 

The first loss of life reported was at Rietter's saloon, in 
the Strand, where three of the most prominent citizens of 
the town — Stanley G. Spencer, Charles Kellner and Rich- 
ard Lord — lost their lives and many others were maimed 
and imprisoned. These three were sitting at a table on 
the first floor Saturday night, making light of the dan- 
ger, when the roof suddenly caved in and came down with 
a crash, killing them. Those in the lower part of the 
building escaped with their lives in a miraculous manner, 
as the falling roof and flooring caught on the bar, 
enabling the people standing near it to crawl under the 
debris. It required several hours of hard work to get 
them out. The negro waiter who was sent for a doctor 
was drowned at Strand and Twenty-first streets, his body 
being found a short time afterward. 

Fully 700 people were congregated at the city hall, 
most of them more or less injured in various ways. One 
man from Lucas Terrace reported the loss of fifty lives 
in the building from which he escaped. He himself was 
severely injured about the head. 

Passing along Tremont street, out as far as Avenue 



54 SAD SCENES IN THE RUINED CITY. 

P, climbing over the piles of lumber which had once been 
residences, four bodies were observed in one yard and 
seven in one room in another place, w^hile as many as 
sixty corpses were seen lying singly and in groups in the 
space of one block. A majority of the drowned, however, 
were under the ruined houses. The body of Miss Sarah 
Summers was found near her home, corner of Tremont 
street and Avenue F, her lips smiling, but her features set 
in death, her hands grasping her diamonds tightly. The 
remains of her sister, Mrs. Claude Fordtran, were never 
found. 

The report from St. Mary's Infirmary showed that only 
eight persons escaped from that hospital. The number 
of patients and nurses w^as one hundred. Rosenberg 
Schoolhouse, chosen as a place of refuge by the people 
of that locality, collapsed. Few of those w^ho had taken 
refuge there escaped — how many cannot be told. 

Sunday morning, as soon as the wind had subsided 
sufficiently to permit people to go out of doors, the streets 
were lined with half-clad men and women, crippled in 
every conceivable manner, hobbling as best they could to 
places where they could receive medical and surgical 
attention for themselves or summon aid for friends and 
relatives who could not move. 

At the Union Depot Baggagemaster Harding picked up 
the lifeless form of a baby girl within a few feet of the 
station. Its parents w^ere among the lost. The station 
building was selected as a place of refuge by hundreds of 
people, and although all the windows and a portion of 
the south wall at the top were blown in, and the occu- 
pants expected every moment to be their last, escape w^as 
impossible, for about the building the water was fully 
twelve feet deep. A couple of small shanties were float- 



SAD SCENES IN THE RUINED CITY. 55 

ing about, but there was no means of making a raft or 
getting a boat. 

Every available building in the city was used as a hos- 
pital. As for the dead, they were being put away any- 
where. In one large grocery store on Tremont street all 
the space that could be cleared was occupied by the 
wounded, while farther down the street a restaurant, 
which had been submerged by water, was serving out 
soggy crackers and cheese to the hungry crowd, while 
cots containing injured men lay on the floor. 

It was hard to determine what section of the city suf- 
fered the greatest damage and loss of life. Information 
from both the extreme eastern and western portions of 
the city was diflflcult to obtain. In fact, it was nearly 
impossible, but that which was received indicated that 
those two sections had suffered the same fate as the rest 
of the city. 

In the business portion of the town the damage could 
not be even approximately estimated. The wholesale 
houses along the Strand had about seven feet of water on 
their ground floors, and all window panes and glass pro- 
tectors of all kinds were demolished. 

On Mechanic street the water was almost as deep as on 
the Strand. All provisions in the wholesale groceries 
and goods on the lower floors were saturated and ren- 
dered valueless. 

In clearing away the ruins of the Catholic Orphans' 
Home heartrending evidence of the heroism and love of 
the Sisters was discovered. 

Bodies of the little folks were found which indicated 
by their position that heroic measures were taken to keep 
them together so that all might be saved. 

The Sisters had tied them together in bunches of eight 
and then tied the cords around their own waists. In this 



56 SAD SCENES IN THE RUINED CITY. 

way they probably hoped to quiet the children's fears 
and lead them to safety. 

The storm struck the Home with such terrific force 
that the structure fell, carrying the inmates with it and 
burying them under tons of debris. 

Two crowds of children, tied and attached to Sisters, 
have been found. In one heap the children were piled on 
the Sisters, and the arms of one little girl were clasped 
around a Sister's neck. 

In the wreck of the Home over ninety children and Sis- 
ters were killed. It was first believed that they had been 
washed out to sea, but the discovery of the little groups 
in the ruins indicates that all were killed and buried 
under the wreckage. 

Sunday and Monday were days of the greatest suffer- 
ing, although the population had hardly sufficiently 
recovered from the shock of the mighty calamity to real- 
ize that they were hungry and cold. 

On Monday all relief trains sent from other cities 
toward Galveston were forced to turn back, the tracks 
being washed away. 

On Tuesday Mayor Jones of Galveston sent out the fol- 
lowing appeal to the country: 

"It is my opinion, based on personal information, that 
5,000 people have lost their lives here. Approximately 
one-third of the residence portion of the city has been 
swept away. There are several thousand people who are 
homeless and destitute — how many there is no way of 
finding out. Arrangements are now being made to have 
the women and children sent to Houston and other 
places, but the means of transportation are limited. 
Thousands are still to be cared for here. We appeal to 
you for immediate aid. WALTER J. JONES, 

"Mayor of Galveston." 



SAD SCENES IN THE RUINED CITY. 57 

Some relief had been sent in, the railroad to Texas City, 
six miles away, having been repaired, boats taking the 
supplies from that point into Galveston. 

Food and women's clothing were the things most needed 
just then. While the men could get along withtheclothes 
they had on and what they had secured since Sunday, the 
women suffered considerably, and there was much sick- 
ness among them in consequence. It was noticeable, 
however, that the women of the city had, by their exam- 
ple, been instrumental in reviving the drooping spirits 
of the men. There was a better feeling prevalent Tues- 
day among the inhabitants, as news had been received 
that within a few days the acute distress would be over, 
except in the matter of shelter. Every house standing 
was damp and unhealthy, and some of the wounded were 
not getting along as well as hoped. Many of the injured 
had been sent out of town to Texas City, Houston and 
other places, but hundreds still remained. It would 
have endangered their lives to move them. 

Tuesday night ninety negro looters were shot in their 
tracks by citizen guards. One of them was searched and 
|700 found, together with four diamond rings and two 
water-soaked gold watches. The finger of a white 
woman with a gold band around it was clutched in his 
hands. 

In the afternoon, at the suggestion of Colonel Hawley, 
a mounted squad of nineteen men, under Adjutant Brok- 
ridge, was detailed by Major Faylings to search a house 
where negro looters were known to have secreted 
plunder. 

"Shoot them in their tracks, boys! We want no pris- 
oners," said the Major. The plunderers changed their 
location before the arrival of the detachment, however, 
and the raiders came back empty-handed. Twenty cases 



58 SAD SCENES IN THE RUINED CirY. 

of looting were reported between 3 and 6 in the evening. 

At 6 o'clock a report reached Major Faylings that 
twenty negroes were robbing a house at Nineteenth and 
Beach streets. 

"Plant them," commanded the young Major, as a half 
dozen citizen soldiers, led by a corj)oral, mustered before 
him for orders. 

"I want every one of those twenty negroes," dead or 
alive," said the Major. 

The squad left on the double quick. "' Half an hour 
later they reported ten of the plunderers killed. 

The following order was posted on the streets at noon 
of Tuesday: 

"To the Public: The city of Galveston being under 
martial law, and all good citizens being now enrolled in 
some branch of the public service, it becomes necessary, 
to preserve the peace, that all arms in this city be placed 
in the hands of the military. All good citizens are forbid- 
den to carry arms, except by written permission from the 
Mayor or Chief of Police or the Major commanding. All 
good citizens are hereby commanded to deliver all arms 
and ammunition to the city and take Major Faylings' 
receipt. WALTER C. JONES, Mayor." 

WHAT A RELIEF PARTY SAW SUNDAY MORNING. 

Starting as soon as the water began to recede Sunday 
morning, a relief part}^ began the work of rescuing the 
wounded and dying from the ruins of their homes. The 
scenes presented were almost beyond description. 
Screaming women, bruised and bleeding, some of them 
bearing the lifeless forms of children in their arms; men, 
broken-hearted and sobbing, bewailing the loss of their 
wives and children: streets filled with floating rubbisli, 



SAD SCENES IN THE RUINED CITY. 59 

among which there were many bodies of the victims of 
the storm, constituted part of the awful picture. In 
every direction, as far as the eye could reach, the scene of 
desolation and destruction continued. 

The first loss, of life reported was that at Rietter's 
saloon, on the Strand, where three of the most prominent 
citizens of the town lost their lives, and where many 
others were maimed and imprisoned. The dead were 
Stanley G. Spencer, Charles Kellner and Richard Lord. 
The three were sitting at a table on the first floor, making 
light of the danger, jocularly telling each other that they 
would stay in the city. Suddenly the roof caved in and 
came down with a crash into the saloon, killing all of 
them. 

Those in the lower part of the building escaped with 
their lives in a remarkable manner. The falling roof and 
flooring were caught on the bar, the people standing near 
it dodging and resting under the debris. It required sev- 
eral hours of hard work to get them out. The negro 
waiter who was sent for the doctor was drowned at the 
corner of the Strand and Twenty-first street, and his body 
was found a short time after. 

The next place visited was the City Hall. Here were 
congregated fully 700 persons, who were more or less 
injured in various ways. One man, named Lucas Terrace, 
reported the loss of fifty lives in the building from which 
he escaped. He himself was severely injured about the 
head. 

The body of Miss Sarah Summers was found near her 
home, on the corner of Tremont street and Avenue F, her 
lips smiling, but her features set in death, her hands 
tightly grasping her diamonds. The remains of her 
sister, Mrs. Claude Fordtran, have not been recovered. 

The report from St. Mary's Infirmary showed that only 



60 SAD SCENES IN THE RUINED CITY. 

eight persons escaped from that hospital. The number 
of patients and nurses was about one hundred and five. 
Rosenberg Schoolhouse, which was chosen as a place of 
refuge by the people of that locality, collapsed. Some of 
those who had taken refuge there escaped — how many 
could not be told. 

As Sunday morning dawned the streets were lined with 
people, half-clad, crippled in every conceivable manner, 
hobbling as best they could to where they could receive 
attention of physicians for themselves and summon aid 
for friends and relatives who could not move. Police 
Officer John Bowie, who had recently been awarded a 
prize as the most popular officer in the city, was in a piti- 
able condition; the toes on both of his feet were broken, 
two ribs caved in, and his head badly bruised, but his own 
condition, he said, was nothing. 

"My house, with wife and children, is in the gulf. I 
have not a thing on earth for which to live." 

The houses of all prominent citizens which escaped 
destruction were turned into hospitals, as were also the 
leading hotels. There was scarcely one of the houses 
left standing which did not contain one or more of the 
dead as well as many injured. 

The rain began to pour down in torrents and the party 
went back down Tremont street toward the city. The 
misery of the poor people, all mangled and hurt, pressing 
to the city for medical attention, was greatly augmented 
by this rain. Stopping at a small grocery store to avoid 
the rain, the party found it packed with injured. The 
provisions in the store had been ruined and there was 
nothing for the numerous customers who came hungry 
and tired. The place was a hospital, no longer a store. 

Further down the street a restaurant, which had been 
submerged by water, was serving out soggy crackers and 



SAD SCENES IN THE RUINED CITY. 61 

cheese to the hungry crowd. That was all that was left. 
The food was soaked full of water, and the peoi)le who 
were fortunate enough to get those sandwiches were hun- 
gry and made no complaint. 

It was hard to determine what section of the city suf- 
fered the greatest damage and loss of life. Information 
from both the extreme eastern and extreme western por- 
tions of the city was difficult to obtain at that time. In 
fact, it was nearly impossible, but the reports received 
indicated that those two sections had suffered the same 
fate as the rest of the city and to a greater degree. 

At the Union Depot scenes similar to those met with in 
other portions of the city were to be found. Baggage- 
master Harding picked up the lifeless form of a baby girl 
within a few feet of the station. Its parents could not be 
located. 

The station building had been selected as a place of 
refuge by a large number of people. All windows in the 
building and a portion of the wall at the top were blown 
in and the occupants expected every moment to be their 
last. But escape was impossible, for about the building 
the water must have been fully twelve feet deep. A 
couple of small shanties were floating about, but there 
was no means of making a raft or getting a boat. 

GALVESTON PEOPLE REFUSED TO HEED THE 
WARNING— DISASTER WAS PREDICTED. 

As marked out on the charts of the LTnited States 
Weather Bureau at Washington the storm which struck 
Galveston had a peculiar course. It was first definitely 
located south by east of San Domingo, and the last day 
of August the center of the disturbance was approxi- 
mately at a point fixed at 14 degrees north latitude and 



G2 SAD SCENES IN THE RUINED CITY. 

68 degrees west longitude. From there it made a course 
almost due northeast, passing through Kingston, Ja- 
maica, and if it had continued on this same line it would 
have struck Galveston just the same, but somewhat ear- 
lier than it did. The storm apparently was headed for 
Galveston all the time, but on Tuesday of last week, when 
almost due south of Cienfuegos, Cuba, it changed its 
course so as to go almost due north, across the Island of 
Cuba, through the toe of the Florida peninsula, and up 
the coast to the vicinity of Tampa. Here the storm made 
another sharp turn to the westward and headed again 
almost straight for Galveston. 

It was this sharp turn to the westward which could not 
be anticipated, so the Weather Bureau sent out its hurri- 
cane signals both for the Atlantic and the gulf coast, well 
understanding that the prediction as to one of these 
coasts would certainly fail. As soon as the storm turned 
westward from below Tampa the Weather Bureau knew 
the Atlantic coast was safe, and turned its attention to- 
ward the gulf. 

The people of Galveston had abundant warning of the 
coming of the hurricane, but, of course, could not antici- 
pate the destructive energy it would gain on the way 
across the Gulf of Mexico. 

The Weather Bureau was informed that the first sign 
of the disturbance was noticed on Aug. 30 near the Wind- 
ward Islands. On Aug. 31 it still was in the same neigh- 
borhood. The storm did not develop any hurricane fea- 
tures during its slow passage through the Caribbean Sea 
and across Cuba, but was accompanied by tremendous 
rains. During the first twelve hours of Sept. 3, in Santia- 
go, Cuba, 10.50 inches rain fell and 2,80 inches fell in the 
next twelve. On Sept. 4 the rainfall during twelve hours 
in Santiago was 4.44 inches, or a total fall in thirty-six 



SAD SCENES IN THE RUINED CITY. 63 

hours of 17,20 inches. There were some high winds in 
Cuba the night of Sept. 4. 

B3' the morning of the Gth the storm center was a short 
distance northwest of Key West, Fhi., and the high winds 
had commenced over Southern Florida, forty-eight miles 
an hour from the east being reported from Jupiter and 
forty miles from the northeast from Key West. During 
the Gth barometric conditions over the eastern portion of 
the United States so far changed as to prevent the move- 
ment of the storm along the Atlantic coast, and it, there- 
fore, continued northwest over the Gulf of Mexico. 

On the morning of the Tth it apparently was central 
south of the Louisiana coast, about longitude 89, latitude 
28. At this time storm signals were ordered up on the 
North Texas coast, and during the day were extended 
along the entire coast. On the morning of the 8tli the 
storm was nearing the Texas coast and was. apparently 
central at about latitude 2S, longitude 94. 

Galveston's disastrous storm was predicted with start- 
ling accuracy by the weather prophet, Prof. Andrew 
Jackson DeVoe, In the "Ladies' Birthday Almanac,'' 
issued from Chattanooga, Tenn., in January, 1900, Prof. 
DeVoe forecasts the weather for the following month of 
September as follows: 

"This will be a hot dry month over the Northern States, 
but plenty of rain over the Atlantic coast States. First 
and second daj'S hot and sultry. Third and fourth heavy 
storms over the extreme Northwestern States, causing 
thunderstorms over the Missouri Valley and showery, 
rainy weather over the whole country from 5th to 8th. 

"On the 9th a great cyclone will form over the Gulf 
of Mexico and move up the Atlantic coast, causing very 
heavy rains from Florida to Maine from 10th to 12th." 



CHAPTER III. 

Crowds of Refugees at Houston — Fed and Housed in Tents — E«gular 
Soldiers. Droiyned — Goyerument Property Lost — Fears for tlalvestou's 
Future. 

HOUSTON was the great rendezvous for supplies sent to 
Galveston, and they poured in there by the carload, 
beginning with Tuesday. The response to the appeal for 
aid by the people of Galveston, on the part of the United 
States, and, in fact, every country in the world, was 
]3rompt and generous. 

That relief was an absolute necessity was made appar- 
ent from the appearance of the refugees who began to 
flock into Houston as soon as the boats began to run to 
Galveston after the catastrophe. In addition to these, 
thousands of strangers arrived also, and the Houston 
authorities were at a loss as to what to do with them. 
Some of these visitors were from points far distant, who 
had relatives in the storm-stricken district, and had come 
to learn the worst regarding them; others there were who 
had come to volunteer their services in the relief work, 
but the greatest number consisted of curious sight-seers, 
almost frantic in their efforts to get to the stricken city 
and feed their eyes on the sickening, repulsive and dis- 
ease-breeding scenes. In addition there were hundreds 
of the sufferers themselves, who had been brought out 
of their misery to be cared for here. 

The question of caring for these crowds came up at a 
mass meeting of the Houston general relief committee 
held Monday. Every incoming train brought scores 
more of people, and immediate action was necessary. It 
was decided finally to pitch tents in Emancipation Park, 

64 



THE REFUGEES AT HOUSTON. 65 

and there as many of the strangers as possible were cared 
for. The hotels could not accommodate one-tenth of 
them. 

First attention, naturally, was given the survivors of 
the storm. Mayor Brashear sent word to Mayor Jones 
of Galveston that all persons, no matter who they were, 
rich or poor, ill or well, should be sent to Houston as soon 
as possible. They wo\ild be well provided for, he said. 
The urgency of his message for the depopulation of Gal- 
veston, he explained, was that until sanitation could be 
restored in the wrecked city everybody possible should be 
sent away. 

It was estimated that nearly 1,000 of the unfortunate 
survivors were sent to Houston on Tuesday from Galves- 
ton in response to Mayor Brashear's request. Every 
building in Houston at all habitable was opened to them, 
and all the seriously ill comfortably housed. The others 
were made as comfortable as possible, but it was 
not only food and clothing that was wanted; the only 
relief some of them sought could not be furnished. They 
were grieving for lost ones left behind — fathers, mothers, 
sisters, wives and children. Nearly everybody had some 
relative missing, but few of them were certain whether 
they were dead or alive. All, however, were satisfied 
that they were dead. 

Men, bareheaded and barefooted, with sunken cheeks 
and hollow eyes; women and children with tattered cloth- 
ing and bruised arms and faces, and mere infants with 
bare feet bruised and swollen, were among the crowds 
seen on the streets of Houston. Women of wealth and 
refinement, with hatless heads and gowns of rich material 
torn into shreds, were among the refugees. At times a 
man and his wife, and sometimes with one or two chil- 
dren, could be seen together, but such sights were infre- 



G() THE REFUGEES AT HOUSTON. 

quent, for nearly all who went to Houston had suffered 
the loss of one or more of their loved ones. 

But with all this suffering there was a marvelous 
amount of heroism shown. A week before most of these 
people had happy homes and their families were around 
them. The Tuesday following the disaster they were 
homeless, penniless and with nothing to look forward to. 
Yet there was scarcely any whimpering or complaining. 
They walked about the streets as if in a trance; thej 
accepted the assistance offered them with heartfelt 
thanks, and apparently were greatly relieved at being 
away from the scenes of sorrow and woe at home. They 
were all made to feel at home in Houston, that they were 
welcome and that everything in the power of the people 
of Houston would be done for their comfort and welfare, 
and yet they seemed not to understand half that was said 
to them. 

John J. Moody, a member of the committee sent from 
Houston to take charge of the relief station at Texas City, 
reported to the Mayor of Houston on Tuesday as follows: 

"To the Mayor — Sir: On arriving at Lamarque this 
morning I was informed that the largest number of 
bodies was along the coast of Texas City. Fifty-six were 
buried j^esterday and to-day within less than two miles, 
extending opposite this place and toward Virginia City. 
It is yet six miles farther to Virginia City, and the bodies 
are thicker where we are now than where they have been 
buried. A citizen inspecting in the opposite direction 
reports dead bodies thick for twenty miles. 

"The residents of this place have lost all — not a hab- 
itable building left, and they have been too busy dispos- 
ing of the dead to look after personal affairs. Those who 
have anything left are giving it to the others, and yet 



THE REFUGEES AT HOUSTON. 67 

there is real suffering. I have given away nearly all the 
bread I brought for our own use to hungry children. 

"A number of helpless women and beggared children 
were landed here from Galveston this afternoon and no 
place to go and not a bite to eat. To-morrow others are 
expected from the same place. Every ten feet along the 
wreck-lined coast tells of acts of vandalism; not a trunk, 
valise or tool chest but what has been rifled. We buried 
a woman this afternoon whose finger bore the mark of a 
recently removed ring." 

The United States government furnished several thou- 
sand tents for the Houston camp, which was unde^r the 
supervision of the United States Marine Hospital author- 
ities. 

TWENTY-EIGHT REGULARS DROWNED. 

General McKibbin, who was sent to Galveston by the 
War Department to investigate the conditions prevail- 
ing there, made the following official report on Wednes- 
day, September 12: 

"Houston, Texas, September 12, 1900. — Adjutant-Gen- 
eral, Washing-ton. — Arrived at Galveston at 6 p. m., 
having been ferried across bay in a yawl boat. It is 
impossible to adequately describe the condition existing. 
The storm began about 9 a. m. Saturday and continued 
with constantly increasing violence until after midnight. 
The island was inundated; the height of the tide was from 
eleven to thirteen feet. The wind was a cyclone. With 
few exceptions, every building in the city is injured. 
Hundreds are entirely destroyed. 

"All the fortifications except the rapid-fire battery at 
San Jacinto are practically destroyed. At San Jacinto 
every building except the quarantine station has been 



68 THE REFUGEES AT HOUSTON. 

swept away. Battery O, First Artillery, United States 
Army, lost twenty-eight men. The officers and their 
families were all saved. Three members of the hospital 
corps lost. Names will be sent as soon as possible. Loss 
of life on the island is possibly more than 1,000. All 
bridges are gone, waterworks destroyed and all telegraph 
lines are down. 

"Colonel Roberts was in the city and made every effort 
to get telegrams through. City under control of com- 
mittee of citizens and perfectly quiet. 

"Every article of equipment or property pertaining to 
Battery O was lost. Not a record of any kind is left. The 
men saved had nothing but the clothing on their per- 
sons. Nearly all are without shoes or clothing other 
than their shirts and trousers. Clothing necessary has 
been purchased and temporary arrangements made for 
food and shelter. There are probably 5,000 citizens home- 
less and absolutely destitute, who must be clothed, shel- 
tered and fed. Have ordered 20,000 rations and tents for 
1,000 people from Sam Houston. Have wired Commis- 
sary-General to ship 30,000 rations by express. Lieuten- 
ant Perry w ill make his way back to Houston and send 
this telegram. McKIBBIN." 

CONDITION OF THE GOVERNMENT WORKS. 

Captain Charles S. Riche, U. S. A., corps of engineers, 
when seen after he had completed a tour of inspection of 
the government works around Galveston, made the fol- 
lowing statement: 

"The jetties are sunk nearly to mean low tide level, but 
not seriously breached. The channel is as good as before, 
perhaps better, twenty-five feet certainly. 

"Fort Crockett, fifteen-pounder implacements, concrete 



THE REFUGEES AT HOUSTON. 69 

all right, standing on filling; water underneath. Battery 
for eight mortars about like preceding, and mortars and 
carriages on hand unmounted and in good shape. Shore 
line at Fort Crockett has moved back about 600 feet. At 
Fort San Jacinto the battery for eight twelve-inch mor- 
tars is badly wrecked, and magazines reported fallen in. 
The mortars are reported safe. No piling was under this 
battery. Some of the sand parapet is left. The battery 
for two ten-inch guns badly wrecked. Both gun plat- 
forms are down and guns leaning. The battery for two 
4.T-inch rapid-fire guns, concrete standing upon piling, 
both guns apparently all right. The battery for two 
fifteen-pounder guns, concrete apparently all right, 
standing on piling. 

"Fort Travis, Bolivar Point — Battery for three fifteen- 
pounder guns, concrete intact, standing on piling. East 
gun down. Western gun probably all right. The shore 
line has moved back about 1,000 feet on the line of the 
rear of these batteries." 

Under the engineers' corps are the fortifications, built 
at a considerable expense; also the harbor improvements, 
upon which more than |8,000,000 had been expended. 

FEARED THE CITY WAS BEYOND REPAIR. 

"I fear Galveston is destroyed beyond its ability to 
recover," is the manner in which Quartermaster Baxter 
concluded his report, made September 12, to the War 
Department at Washington. He recommended the con- 
tinuance of his office only long enough to recover the 
office safes and close up accoiints, and declared all gov- 
ernment works were wrecked so restoration was impos- 
sible. 

This gloomy prophecy for the city's future was reflected 



70 THE REFUGEES AT HOUSTON. 

in an official report to Governor Sayers, of Texas, by 
ex-State Treasurer Wortham, who spent a day at Galves- 
ton, investigating the situation. His statement claimed 
that 75 per cent of the city was demolished and gives lit- 
tle hope for rebuilding. 

Mr. Wortham, who acted as aid to Adjutant-General 
Scurry, Texas National Guard, during the inquiry, said 
in his report: 

"The situation at Galveston beggars description. I am 
convinced that the city is practically wrecked for all time 
to come. 

"Fully 75 per cert of the business of the town is irrep- 
arably wrecked, and the same per cent of damage is to 
be found in the residence district. Along the wharf front 
great ocean steamers have bodily bumped themselves on 
the big piers and lie there, great masses of iron and wood, 
that even fire cannot totally destroy. The great ware- 
houses along the water front are smashed in on one side, 
unroofed and gutted throughout their lengih, their con- 
tents either piled in heaps on the wharves or along the 
streets. Small tugs and sailboats have jammed them- 
selves half into tlie buildings, where they were landed 
by the incoming waves, and left by the receding waters. 
Houses are packed and jammed in great confusing 
masses in all of the streets. 

"Great piles of human bodies, dead animals, rotting 
vegetation, household furniture, and fragments of the 
houses themselves are piled in confused heaps right in 
the main streets of the city. Along the gulf front human 
bodies are floating around like cordwood. Intermingled 
with them are to be found the carcasses of horses, 
chickens, dogs, and rotting vegetable matter. Above all 
arises the foulest stench that ever emanated from any cess- 



THE REFUGEES AT HOUSTON. 71 

pool, absolutely sickening in its intensity and most dan- 
gerous to health in its effects. 

"Along the Strand adjacent to the gulf front, where 
are located all the big wholesale warehouses and stores, 
the situation is even worse. Great stores of fresh vege- 
tation have been invaded by the incoming waters, and 
are now turned into garbage piles of most befouling 
odors. The gulf waters while on the land played at will 
with everything, smashing in doors of stores, depositing 
bodies of humans where they pleased, and then receded, 
leaving the wreckage to tell its own tale of how the work 
had been done. As a result, the great warehouses are 
tombs, wherein are to be found the dead bodies of human 
beings and carcasses, almost defying the efforts of relief 
parties. 

"In the pile of debris along the street, in the water, and 
scattered throughout the residence portion of the city, are 
to be found masses of wreckage, and in these great piles 
are to be found more human bodies and household furni- 
ture of every description. 

"Handsome pictures are seen lying alongside of the ice- 
cream freezers and resting beside the nude figure of some 
man or woman. These great masses of debris are not 
confined to any one particular section of the city. 

"The waters of the gulf and the winds spared no one 
who was exposed. Whirling houses around in its grasp, 
the wind piled their shattered frames high in confusing 
masses and dumped their contents on top. 

"Men and women were thrown around like so many 
logs of wood and left to rot in the withering sun. 

"I believe that with the best exertions of the men it 
will require weeks to secure some semblance of physical 
order in the city, and it is doubtful even then if all the 
debris will be disposed of. 



72 THE REFUGEES AT HOUSTON. 

"I never saw such a wreck in my life. From the gulf 
front to the center of the island, from the ocean back, 
the storm wave left death and destruction in its wake. 

"There is hardly a family on the island whose house- 
hold is not short a member or more, and in some instances 
entire families have been washed away or killed. Hun- 
dreds who escaped from the waves did so only to become 
victims of a worse death by being crushed by falling 
buildings. 

"Down in the business portion of the city the founda- 
tions of great buildings have given way, carrying tower- 
ing structures to their ruin. These ruins, falling across 
the streets, formed barricades on which gathered all the 
floating debris and many human bodies. Many of these 
bodies were stripped of their clothing by the force of the 
water and the wind, and there was nothing to protect 
them from the scorching sun, the millions of flies, and the 
rapid invasion of decomposition that set in. 

"Many of the bodies have decayed so rapidly that they 
could not be handled for burial. 

"Some of the most conservative men on the island place 
the loss of human beings at not less than 7,500 and possi- 
bly 10,000, while others say it will not exceed 5,000." 

COAST CITIES NOT PROPERLY CONSTRUCTED. 

Chief Willis L. Moore, of the United States Weather 
Bureau at Washington, being asked his opinion of the 
idea of rebuilding Galveston on some other site, replied 
as follows: 

"Weather Bureau, U. S., Washington, D. C, September 

13, 1900. 

"I should not advise the abandonment of the city of 
Galveston. It is true that tropical hurricanes sometimes 



THE REFUGEES AT HOUSTON. 73 

move westward across the gulf and strike the Texas 
coast, but such movement is infrequent. Within the last 
thirty years no storm of like severity has touched any 
part of the coast of the United States. There are many 
points on both the Atlantic and gulf coasts, some of them 
occupied by cities the size of Galveston, that are equally 
exposed to the force of both wind and water, should a 
hurricane move in from the ocean or gulf and obtain the 
proper position relative to them. It would not be advis- 
able to abandon these towns and cities merely because 
there is a remote probability that at some future time a 
hurricane may be the cause of great loss of life and prop- 
erty. 

"We have just passed through a summer that for sus- 
tained high temperature has no parallel within the last 
thirty years. Records of low temperature, torrential 
rains, and other meteorological phenomena that have 
stood for twenty and thirty years are not infrequently 
broken. There does not appear to be, so far as we know, 
any law governing the occurrence or recurrence of storms. 
The vortex of a hurricane is comparatively narrow, at 
most not more than twenty or thirty miles in width. It 
is only within the vortex that such a great calamity as 
has befallen Galveston can occur. 

"It would seem that, rather than abandon the city, 
means should be adopted at Galveston and other simi- 
larly exposed cities on the Atlantic and gulf coasts to 
erect buildings only on heavy stone foundations that 
should have solid interiors of masonry to a height of ten 
feet above mean sea level. Rigid building regulations 
should allow no other structures erected for habitations 
in the future in any city located at sea level and that is 
exposed to the direct sweep of the sea. 

"But Galveston should take heart, as the chances are 



74 THE REFUGEES AT HOUSTON. 

that not once in a thousand years would she be so ter- 
ribly stricken, and high, solid foundations would doubt- 
less make her impregnable to loss of life by all future 
storms. WILLIS L. MOORE, 

"Chief U. S. Weather Bureau." 

COURAGE OF GALVESTON'S BUSINESS MEN. 

The courage of Galveston's business men under the 
distressing conditions was shown by the utterances of 
Mr. Eustace Taylor, one of the best-known residents of 
that city, a cotton buyer known to the trade in all parts 
of the country. Mr. Taylor was asked on Thursday suc- 
ceeding the flood for an opinion as to the future of Gal- 
veston. 

"I think," he said, "that what we have done here for the 
four days which have passed since the storm has been 
wonderful. It will take us two weeks before we can 
ascertain the actual commercial loss. But we are going 
to straighten out everything. We are going to stay here 
and work it out. We will have a temporary wharf within 
thirty days, and with that we can resume business and 
handle the traffic through Galveston. 

"I think that within thirty or forty days business will 
be carried on in no less volume than before. I am going 
to stand right up to Galveston. 

"If it costs me the last cent, I will stand up for Gal- 
veston. With our temporary wharf we shall put from 
1,000 to 2,000 men at work loading vessels while we are 
waiting for the railroads to restore bridges and terminals 
on the island. W^e shall bring business by barges from 
Virginia Point and load in midstream. In this way we 
shall not only resume our commercial relations, but we 
shall be able to put the labor of the city at work. 



THE REFUGEES AT HOUSTON. 75 

"This port holds the advantage over every other port 
of this country for accommodating 10,000,000 producers, 
and will accommodate millions of tons, and in inviting 
these millions, as we have, to continue their business 
through this port we must in our construction do it on 
the same lines employed by the communities of Boston, 
New York, Buffalo and Chicago, the stability of which 
was plainly illustrated in some structures recently 
erected in our community. 

''The port is all right. The ever-alert engineers in 
charge of the harbor here have already taken their sound- 
ings. The fullest depth of water remains. The jetties, 
with slight repair, are intact, and because of these con- 
ditions, which exist nowhere else for the territory and 
people it serves, the restoration will be more rapid 
than may be thought, and the flow of commerce will be 
as great, and for the courage and fortitude and foresight 
to look beyond the unhappy events of to-day, as prosper- 
ous and secure as in any part of our prosperous country." 

ELEVATORS AND GRAIN NOT BADLY DAMAGED. 

J. C. Stewart, a well-known grain elevator builder, 
arrived at Galveston on Thursday, in response to a tele- 
gram from General Manager M. E. Bailey,>of the Galves- 
ton Wharf Company. He at once made an inspection of 
the grain elevators and their contents, and then said not 
2 per cent of the elevators had been damaged. The 
spouts were intact, and elevator "A" would be ready to 
deliver grain to ships the following Sunday. 

The wheat in elevator "A" was loaded into vessels just 
as rapidly as they arrived at the elevator to take it. As 
soon as the elevator was emptied of its grain the wheat 
from elevator "Q" was transferred to it and loaded into 



76 THE REFUGEES AT HOUSTON. 

ships. Very little of the wheat in elevator "B" had been 
injured, but the conveyors were swept away, and it was 
necessary to transfer the grain to elevator "A" in order 
to get it to the ships. Mr. Bailey put a large force of 
men to work clearing up each of the wharves, and the 
company was ready for new business all along the line 
within eight days. 

BURNING BODIES BY THE HUNDREDS. 

Pestilence could only be avoided here by cremation. 
That was the order of the day. Human corpses, dead 
animals and all debris were therefore to be submitted to 
the flames. On Thursday upwards of 400 bodies, mostly 
women and children, were cremated, and the work went 
rapidly on. They were gathered in heaps of twenty and 
forty bodies, saturated w^ith kerosene and the torch 
applied. 

CONFLICT OF AUTHORITY BREEDS TROUBLE. 

A conflict of authority, due to a misunderstanding, 
precipitated a temporary disorganization of the policing 
of the city of Galveston on Thursday. When General 
Scurry, Adjutant-General of the Texas National Guard, 
arrived at Galveston on Tuesday night, with about 200 
militia, from Houston, he at once conferred with the 
Chief of Police as to the plans for guarding property, pro- 
tecting the lives of citizens and preserving law and order. 
An order was then issued by the Chief of Police to the 
effect that the soldiers sliould arrest all persons found 
carrying arms, unless they showed a written order, 
signed by the Chief of Police or Mayor of the city, giving 
them permission to go armed. 



THE REFUGEES AT HOUSTON. 77 

Sheriff Thomas had, meantime, appointed and sworn 
in 150 special deputy sheriffs. These deputies were sup- 
plied with a ribboned badge of authority, but were not 
given any written or printed commission. Acting under 
the order issued by the Chief of Police, Major Hunt 
McCaleb, of Galveston, who was appointed as aide to 
General Scurry, issued an order to the militia to arrest 
all persons carrying arms without the proper authority. 
The result was that about fifty citizens wearing deputy 
sheriff badges were taken into custody by the soldiers 
and taken to police headquarters. 

The soldiers had no wa^- of knowing by what authority 
the men were acting with these badges, and would listen 
to no excuses. 

General Scurry and Sheriff Thomas, hearing of the 
wholesale arrests, called at police headquarters and con- 
sulted with Acting Chief Amundsen. The latter referred 
General Scurry to Mayor Jones. Then General Scurry 
and Sheriff Thomas held a conference at the City Hall. 
These two officers soon arrived at an understanding, and 
an agreement was decided upon to the effect that all per- 
sons deputized as deputy sheriffs and all persons 
appointed as special officers should be permitted to carry 
arms and pass in and out of the guard lines. General 
Scurry suggested that the deputy sheriffs and special 
police — and the regular police, for that matter — guard 
the city during the daytime and that the militia take 
charge of the city at night. 

General Scurry was acting for and by authority 
granted by Mayor Jones, and promptly said he was there 
to work in harmony with the city and county authorities, 
and that there would be no conflict. When General 
Scurry and Sheriff Thomas called upon the Mayor, the 
Mayor said that he knew that if the Adjutant-General, 



78 THE REFUGEES AT HOUSTON. 

the Chief of Police and the Sheriff would get together 
they could take care of the police work. 

It was known that people were coming to Galveston by 
the score; that many of them had no business there, and 
that the city had enough to do to watch the lawless ele- 
ment of Galveston, without being burdened with the care 
of outsiders. 

All deputy sheriffs wearing the badge issued by the 
Sheriff carried arms thereafter and made arrests, and 
were not interfered with in any way by the military 
guards. 

INADEQUATE TRANSPORTATION PREVENTS 
SUPPLIES FROM REACHING THE FAMINE- 
STRICKEN PEOPLE. 

On Thursday, September 13, train load after train load 
of provisions, clothing, disinfectants and medicines were 
lined up at Texas City, six miles from Galveston, all sent 
to the suffering survivors of the storm-swept city. Across 
the bay were thousands of people, friends of the dead 
and living, waiting for news of the missing ones and an 
opportunity to help, but only a meager amount of relief 
had at that time reached the stricken town. Two tele- 
graph wires had been put up and partial communication 
restored to let the outside world know that conditions 
there were far more horrible than was at first supposed. 
That was about all. It was not that which was needed; 
it was a more practicable connection with the mainland. 
True, more boats had been pressed into service to carry 
succor to the suffering and the suffering to succor, but 
they were few and small, and although working dili- 
gently night and day the service was inadequate in the 
extreme. And the people were still suffering — the sick 



THE REFUGEES AT HOUSTON. 79 

dying for want of medicine and care; tlie well growing 
desperate and in many cases gradually losing their rea- 
son. 

While there were many who could not be provided 
for because the necessary articles for them could not be 
carried in, there were hundreds who were being bene- 
fited. Those supplies which had arrived had been 
of great assistance, but they were far from ample to 
provide for even a small percentage of the sufferers, esti- 
mated at 30,000. Even the rich were hungry. An effort 
was being made on the part of the authorities to provide 
for those in the greatest need, but this was found to be 
difficult work, so many were there in sad condition. A 
rigid system of issuing supplies was established, and the 
regular soldiers and a number of citizens were sworn 
in as policemen. These attended to the issuing of rations 
as soon as the boats arrived. 

Every effort was put forth to reach the dying first, but 
all sorts of obstacles were encountered, because many 
of them were so badly maimed and wounded that they 
were unable to apply to the relief committees, and the 
latter were so burdened by the great number of direct 
applications that they were unable to send out messen- 
gers. 

The situation grew worse every minute; everything 
was needed for man and beast — disinfectants, prepared 
foods, hay, gi*ain, and especially water and ice. Scores 
more of people died that day as a result of inattention 
and many more were on the verge of dissolution, for at 
best it was to be many days before a train could be run 
into the city, and the only hope was the arrival of more 
boats to transport the goods* 

The relief committee held a meeting and decided that 
armed men were needed to assist in burying the dead 



80 THE REFUGEES AT HOUSTON. 

and clear the wreckage, and arrangements were made to 
fill this demand. There were plenty of volunteers for 
this work but an insufficiency of arms. The proposition 
of trying to pay for work was rejected by the committee, 
and it was decided to go ahead impressing men into ser- 
vice, issuing orders for rations only to those who worked 
or were unable to work. 

Word was received that refugees would be carried 
from the city to Houston free of charge. An effort was 
made to induce all who are able to leave to go, because 
the danger of pestilence was frightfully apparent. 

There was any number willing to depart, and each out- 
going boat, after having unloaded its provisions, was 
filled with people. The safety of the living was a para- 
mount consideration, and the action of the railroads in 
offering to carry refugees free of charge greatly relieved 
the situation. The workers had their hands full in any 
event, and the nurses and physicians also, for neglect, 
although unavoidable, often resulted in the death of 
many. 

It was estimated |2,500,000 would be needed for the 
relief work. The banks of Galveston subscribed $10,000, 
but personal losses of the citizens of Galveston had been 
so large that very few were able to subscribe anything. 
The confiscation of all foodstuffs held by wholesale gro- 
cers and others was decided upon early in the day by the 
relief committee. Starvation would inevitably ensue un- 
less the supply was dealt out with great care. All kero- 
sene oil was gone, and the gas works and electric lights 
were destroyed. The committee asked for a shipload of 
kerosene oil, a shipload of drinking water and tons of 
disinfectants, such as lime and formaldehyde, for imme- 
diate use, and money and food next. Not a tallow candle 



THE REFUGEES AT HOUSTON. 81 

could be bought for gold. No baker was making bread, 
and milk was remembered as a past luxury only. 

The following statement was sent out to the country: 

"We are receiving numerous telegrams of condolence 
and offers of assistance. As the telegraph wires are 
burdened, we beg the Associated Press to communicate 
this response to all. Near-by cities are supplying and will 
supply sufficient food, clothing, etc., for immediate needs. 
Cities farther away can serve us best by sending money. 
Checks should be made payable to John Sealy, chair- 
man of the finance committee. All supplies should come 
to W. A. McVitie, chairman relief committee. 

"We have 25,000 people to clothe and feed for many 
weeks and to furnish with household goods. Most of 
these are homeless, and the others will require money to 
make their wrecked residences habitable. From this 
the world may understand how much money we will 
need. This committee will from time to time report our 
needs with more particularity. We refer to dispatch of 
this date of Major R. G. Lowe, which the committee 
fully indorses. All communicants will please accept 
this answer in lieu of direct response and be assured of 
the heartfelt gratitude of the entire population. 

"W. C. JONES, Mayor, 
"M. LASKER, 
"J. D. SKINNER, 
"C. H. M'MASTER, 
"R. G. LOWE, 
"CLARENCE OWSLEY." 

The dispatch of Major Lowe referred to was as follows: 

"Galveston, Texas, Sept. 12.— Charles S. Diehl, 
General Manager the Associated Press, Chicago: A 



82 THE REFUGEES AT HOUSTON. 

summary of the conditions prevailing at Galveston is 
more than human intellect can master. Briefly stated, 
the damage to property is anywhere between |15,000,000 
and 120,000,000. The loss of life cannot be computed. 
No lists could be kept and all is simply guesswork. Those 
thrown out to sea and buried on the ground wherever 
found will reach the horrible total of at least 3,000 souls. 
"My estimate of the loss on the island of the City of 
Galveston and the immediate surrounding district 
is between 4,000 and 5,000 deaths. I do not make 
this statement in fright or excitement. The whole 
story will never be told, be€ause it cannot be told. The 
necessities of those living are total. Not a single indi- 
vidual escaped property loss. The property on the island 
is wrecked; fully one-half totally swept out of existence. 
What our needs are can be computed by the world at 
large by the statement herewith submitted much better 
than I could possibly summarize them. The help must 
be immediate. R. G. LOWE, 

"Manager Galveston News." 

Thursday evening at the Tremont Hotel, in Galveston, 
occurred a wedding that was not attended with music 
and flowers and a gathering of merrymaking friends 
and relatives. On the contrary, it was peculiarly sad. 
Mrs. Brice Roberts expected some day to marry Earnest 
Mayo; the storm which desolated so many homes de- 
prived her of almost everything on earth — father, mother, 
sister and brother. She was left destitute. Her sweet- 
heart, too, was a sufferer. He lost much of his posses- 
sions in Dickinson, but he stepped bravely forward and 
took his sweetheart to his home. 

Galveston began, September 14, to emerge from the 
valley of the shadow of death into which she had been 



THE REFUGEES AT HOUSTON. 83 

plunged for nearly a week, and on that day, for the first 
time, actual progress was made toward clearing up the 
citj' . The bodies of those killed and drowned in the storm 
had for the most part been disposed of. A large number 
was found when the debris was removed from wrecked 
buildings, but on that date there were no corpses to be 
seen save those occasionally cast up by the sea. As far 
as sight, at least, was concerned, the city was cleared of 
its dead. 

They had been burned, thrown into the water, buried — 
anything to get them quickly out of sight. The chief 
danger of pestilence was due almost entirely to the large 
number of unburied cattle lying upon the island, whose 
decomposing carcasses polluted the air to an almost un- 
bearable extent. This, however, was not in the city 
proper, but was a condition prevailing on the outskirts 
of Galveston. One great trouble heretofore liad been 
the inability to organize gangs of laborers for the pur- 
pose of clearing the streets. 

THE SAD SITUATION FOUR DAYS AFTER THE 
CATASTROPHE. 

The situation in the stricken city on Wednesday, Sep- 
tember 12, was horrible indeed. Men, women and chil- 
dren were dying for want of food and scores went insane 
from the terrible strain to which they had been sub- 
jected. 

In his appeal to the country for aid, issued on Tuesday, 
September 11, Mayor Walter J. Jones said fully 5,000 
people had lost their lives during the huiTicane, this esti- 
mate being based upon personal information. Captain 
Charles Clarke, a vessel-owner of Galveston, and a relia- 
ble man, said the death list would be even gTeater than 



84 THE REFUGEES AT HOUSTON. 

that, aud he was backed in his opinion by several other 
conservative men who had no desire to exaggerate the 
losses, but felt that they are justified in letting the coun- 
try know the full extent of the disaster in order that the 
necessary relief might be supplied. 

Up to Tuesday night 2,300 bodies of storm victims had 
been disposed of, most of them having been buried at sea, 
while hundreds were yet under the ruins of wrecked 
business buildings and residences. 

Mayor Jones' appeal to the country was as follows: 

"It is my opinion, based on personal information, that 
5,000 people have lost their lives here. Approximately 
one-third of the residence portion of the city has been 
swept away. There are several thousand people who are 
homeless and destitute — how many, there is no way of 
finding out. Arrangements are now being made to have 
the women and children sent to Houston and other places, 
but the means of transportation are limited. Thousands 
are still to be cared for here. We appeal to you for imme- 
diate aid. WALTER J. JONES, 

"Mayor of Galveston." 

Food and women's clothing were the things most 
needed. While the men got along with the clothes they had 
on and what they had secured since Sunday, the women 
suffered considerably, and there was much sickness 
among them in consequence. It was noticeable, how- 
ever, that the women of the city never lost their courage 
and by their example were instrumental in reviving the 
drooping spirits of the men. 

Every house then standing was damp and unhealthy, 
and some of the wounded did not get along as well as 
hoped. Many of the injured were sent 6ut of town to 



THE REFUGEES AT HOUSTON. 85 

Texas City, Houston and other places, but hundreds 
remained. It would have endangered their lives to move 
them. 

A regular fleet of steamers and barges was plying 
between Galveston and Texas City, only six miles dis- 
tant, and which had railway communication with all 
parts of the United States. As the railroad line to Texas 
City had been repaired, trains were sent in there as close 
together as possible, but this did not prevent many hun- 
dreds in Galveston from dying of starvation and lack of 
medical attendance. 

Galveston suffered in every conceivable way since the 
catastrophe of Saturday. Hurricane and flood came 
first; then famine, and then vandalism. Scores of reck- 
less criminals flocked to the city by the first boats that 
landed there, and were unchecked in their work of rob- 
bery of the helpless dead Monday and Tuesday. Wednes- 
day, however. Captain Rafferty, commanding the regulars 
at the beach barracks, sent seventy men of an artillery 
company there to do guard duty in the streets, and, being 
ordered to promptly shoot all those found looting, carried 
out their instructions to the letter. Over 100 ghouls were 
shot Wednesday afternoon and evening, and no mercy 
was shown vandals. If they were not killed at the first 
volley the troops — regulars of the United States army 
and those of the Texas National Guard — saw that the 
coup de grace was administered. INIost of the robbers 
were negroes, and when executed were found loaded with 
spoil — jewelry wrenched from the bodies of women, 
money and watches and silverware and other articles 
taken from residences and business houses. 

Not only had these fiends robbed the dead, but they 
mutilated the bodies as well, in many instances fingers 
and ears of dead women being amputated in order to 



86 THE REFUGEES AT HOUSTON. 

secure the jewelry. Some of the business organizations 
of the city also furnished guards to assist in patroling 
the streets, and fully 1,000 men are now on duty. 

Wednesday evening the regulars shot forty-nine ghouls 
after they had been tried by court-martial, having found 
them in possession of large quantities of plunder. The 
vandals begged for mercy, but none was shown them 
and they were speedily put out of the way. The bandits, 
as a rule, obtained transportation to the city by represent- 
ing themselves as having been engaged to do relief work 
and to aid in burying the dead. Shortly after the first 
bunch of thieves was executed another party of twenty 
was shot. The outlaws were afterward put out of the 
way by twos and threes, it being their habit to travel in 
gangs and never alone. In every instance the pockets of 
these bandits were found filled with plunder. 

More than 2,000 bodies had been thrown into the sea 
up to Wednesday night, this having been decided upon 
by the authorities as the only way of preventing a visita- 
tion of pestilence, which, they felt, should not be added to 
the horrors the city had already experienced. Tuesday 
evening, shortly before darkness set in, three barges, con- 
taining 700 bodies, were sent out to sea, the corpses being 
thrown into the water after being heavily weighted to 
prevent the possibility of their afterwards coming to the 
surface. As there were few volunteers for this 
ghastly work, troops and police officers Avere sent out to 
impress men for the service, but while these unwilling 
laborers, after being filled with liquor, agreed to handle 
the bodies of white men, women and children, nothing 
could induce them to touch the negro dead. Finally 
city firemen came forward and attended to the disposal 
of the corpses of the colored victims. These were badly 



THE REFUGEES AT HOUSTON. 87 

decomposed, and it was absolutely necessary to get them 
out of the way to prevent infection. 

No attempt had been made so far to gather up the dead 
at night because the gas and electric light plants Avere 
so badly damaged that they could furnish no illumination 
whatever. By Thursday night, liowever, some of the arc 
lights were ready for use. Since Wednesday morning no 
efforts at identification were made by the searchers after 
the dead, it being imperative that the bodies be disposed 
of as soon as possible. While the barges containing the 
bodies were on their way out to sea lists were made, but 
that was the only care taken in regard to the victims, 
many of whom were among the most prominent people 
of the city. Of the hundreds buried at Virginia Point 
and other places along the coast not 10 per cent were 
identified, the stakes at the heads of the hastily dug 
graves simply being marked, "White woman, aged 30," 
"White man, aged 45," or "Male" or "Female child." 

Ninety-six bodies were buried at Texas City, all but 
eight of which floated to that place from Galveston. 
Some were identified, but the great majority were not. 
State troops were stationed at Texas City and Virginia 
Point to prevent those who could not give a satisfactory 
account of themselves from boarding boats bound for 
Galveston. In burying the dead along the shore of the 
gulf no coffins were used, the supply being exhausted. 
There was no time to knock even an ordinary pine box 
together. Cases were known where people have buried 
their dead in their yards. 

As soon as possible the work of cremating the bodies 
of the dead began. Vast funeral pyres were erected and 
the corpses placed thereon, the incineration being under 
the supervision of the fire department. Matters had 
come to such a pass that even the casting of bodies into 



88 THE REFUGEES AT HOUSTON. 

the sea was not only dangerous to those who handled 
them, but there was the utmost danger in carrying the 
decomposed, putrefying masses of human flesh through 
the streets to the barges on the beach. The cemeteries 
were not fit for burial purposes, and no attempt whatever 
was made to reach them until the ground was thoroughly 
dried out. Then the bodies of those buried in private 
grounds, yards and in the sands along the beach, not only 
on Galveston Island, but at Virginia Point and Texas 
City, were removed to the public places of interment, 
where suitable memorials were set up to mark their last 
resting places. It might have been deemed unfeeling and 
even brutal, but the fact was that the bodies of the uni- 
dentified victims received small consideration, being han- 
dled roughly by the workmen, and thrown into the tempo- 
rary graves along the beach as though they were animals 
and not the remains of human beings. No prayers were 
uttered save in isolated instances, and the poor mangled 
bodies were consigned to the trench as hurriedly as possi- 
ble. The burying parties had no time for sentiment, and 
so accustomed had the workers in the "dead gangs," as 
they were named, become to their grewsome task that 
they even laughed and joked when laying away the 
corpses. 

Special attention was given the wounded. Physicians 
were on duty all the time, some of them not having been 
to bed since Friday night longer than an hour at a time. 
Victims not badly hurt were put aside for those suffering 
and actually requiring the services of surgeons. There 
s\^ere thousands of them. There were few in Galveston 
who did not bear the marks of wounds of some sort. 



^■■»u4 



CHAPTER IV. 

Thrilling Experiences of People During the Great Storm— Elghty-flye 
Persons Perish by Being Blown from a Train — Adventures of Sur- 
vivors at Galveston. 

THE experiences and adventures of those who were in 
the great and disastrous storm and escaped only after 
undergoing frightful anxiety, make interesting reading. 
Those who emerged in safety from the fearful vortex were 
unusually fortunate, when it is considered that possibly 
8,000 persons in Galveston lost their lives and hundreds 
fell victims to the fury of the hurricane in the territory 
adjacent to the ill-fated city. 

Hon. John H. Poe, member of the Louisiana State 
Board of Education, and residing at Lake Charles, La., 
was present when eighty-five passengers on the Gulf & 
Interstate train which left Beaumont early Saturday 
morning from Bolivar Point lost their lives. Mr. Poe 
was one of the passengers on this train and fortunately, 
together with a few others, sought safety in the light- 
house at Bolivar Point and was saved. The train reached 
Bolivar about noon and all preparations were made to 
•run the train on the ferryboat preparatory to crossing 
the bay. But the wind blew so swiftly that the ferry 
could not make a landing and the conductor of the train, 
after allowing it to stand on the tracks for a few min- 
utes, started to back it back toward Beaumont. The 
wind increased so rapidly, coming in from the open sea, 
that soon the water had reached a level with the bottom 
of the seats within the cars. It. was then that some of 
the passengers sought safety in the nearby lighthouse, 
but in spite of all efforts eighty-five passengers were 
blown away or drowned. The train was entirely wrecked. 

89 



90 THRILLING EXPERIENCES. 

Some of the killed were from New Orleans, as the train 
made direct connections with the Southern Pacific train 
which left New Orleans Friday night. 

Those who were saved had to spend over fifty hours in 
the dismal lighthouse on almost no rations. The experi- 
ence was one they will remember as one of the most ter- 
rible of their whole lives. 

COMMERCIAL TRAVELEll'S EXPERIENCE IN GAL- 
VESTON. 

A graphic description of one man's experience was 
given by a commercial traveler — William Van Eaton. 
He reached Galveston Saturday morning. His narrative 
is especially interesting, because it shows with w^iat 
suddenness the storm assumed a dangerous character. 

"There was high wind and rain," said he, "but so little 
was thought of it, however, that myself and some acquaint- 
ances started down to the beach. The water came up so 
rapidly that we turned and hurried toward the Tremont 
Hotel. Before we reached it we had to wade in water 
waist deep. 

"Within a few minutes," he went on to say, "women 
and children began to flock to the hotel for refuge. All 
were panic-stricken. I saw tw^o women, one with a child, 
trying to get to the hotel. They were drowned not 300 
yards from us." 

Mr. Van Eaton was one of the first to cross from Gal- 
veston to the mainland after the storm subsided. He 
paid |15 to a boatman to make the crossing. When he 
reached the point he found an engine and a caboose 
chained together, with the water several feet deep around 
them. While he waited in the caboose for the water to 
go down the bodies of two men and a boy floated against 



THRILLING EXPERIENCES. 91 

it, and the trainmen tied them to one end of the car. Mr. 
Van Eaton counted fourteen bodies that had drifted in 
from the bay, all showing that they had been dashed 
aaainst wreckage. 



'■ti'^ 



ONLY ONE OUT OF FIFTY PEOPLE SAVED. 

Patrick Joyce, a railroad man, who passed through the 
storm at Galveston in 1872, suffered such hardships in 
that city Saturday morning that he was convinced that 
the storm at that time was only a ^'mild little blow" in 
comparison. He was one of the refugees picked up at 
Lamarque. 

"It began raining in Galveston early Saturday morn- 
ing," he said. "About 9 o'clock work was discontinued 
by the company, and I left for home. I got there about 
11 o'clock and found about three feet of water in the 
yard. It began to get worse and worse, the water getting 
higher and the wind stronger, until it was almost as bad 
as the gulf itself with its raging torrents. Finally the 
house was taken off its foundation and demolished. 

"There were nine families in the house, which was a 
large two-story frame, and of the fifty people residing 
there myself and niece were the only ones who could get 
away. I managed to find a raft of driftwood or wreck- 
age and got on it, going with the tide. I had not got 
far before I was struck with some wreckage and my niece 
knocked out of my arms. I could not save her, and had 
to see her drown. 

"I was carried on and on with the tide, sometimes on a 
raft, and again I was thrown from it by coming in con- 
tact with some pieces of timber, parts of houses, logs, 
cisterns and other things which were floating around in 
the gulf and bay. Many and many a knock I got on my 



92 THRILLING EXPERIENCES. 

head and body, until I was black and bluo all over. The 
wind was blowing at a terrific rate of speed and the 
waves were away up. 

"I drifted and swam all night, not knowing where I 
was going or in what direction. About 3 o'clock in the 
morning I began to feel the hard ground, and then I 
knew I was on the mainland. I wandered around until I 
came to a house, and there a person gave me some clothes. 
I had lost most of mine soon after I started, and only 
wore a coat. 

"I was in the water about seven hours, and this sensa- 
tion, together with the feeling of all these bruises I have 
on my head and body, is not a pleasant one. I managed 
to save my own life through the hardest kind of a strug- 
gle, but I thought more than once I was done for, and I 
lost all I had in this world — relatives who were dear to 
me, home and all." 

HEROISM OF A HOTEL-KEEPER IN SAVING 
LIVES. 

Jamesi Black, a well-known merchant at Morgan's 
Point, saved nine lives during the storm. The story of 
his heroism was told by W. S. Wall of Houston, Tex., 
who has a summer home at Morgan's Point. 

"My wife was taking f^jupper at the Black Hotel," said 
Mr. Wall, "when Mr. Black rushed into the dining-room 
and called upon all to fly for their lives. The tidal wave 
was on them in an instant, and almost before they could 
leave the hotel to go to a higher point where the Vincent 
residence stood, some five or six blocks away, the rushing 
waters were all about them more than three feet deep. 

"]Mr. Black, struggling against the elements, bore my 
wife in safety to the Vincent home, miraculously escaping 



THRILLING EXPERIENCES. 93 

being crushed by a heavy log which the rushing waters 
carried along the pathway of escape. Returning imme- 
diately to the hotel, Mr. Black in like manner brought 
safely to the Vincent home his aged father and mother, 
Mr. and Mrs. James Black, Sr. His next act of heroism 
was to rescue Mrs. Rushmore, her two daughters, two 
grandchildren and another woman whose name I cannot 
recall. The Vincent home withstood the storm, but the 
Black Hotel was wrecked. 

"Louis Braquet, manager of the Black Hotel, was 
engulfed in the waves and gave up his life in the success- 
ful rescue of his wife and a colored servant girl." 

SPENT A MOST THRILLING NIGHT. 

F. T. Woodward, who was a passenger on the first 
train to arrive at Dallas, Tex., from Houston, the Mon- 
day night succeeding the catastrophe, spent a thrilling 
Saturday night in the Grand Central station in the latter 
city. One hundred and fifty other persons shared his 
memorable experiences. 

"The depot, standing as it does isolated and alone," 
said Mr. Woodward, "was exposed to the full force of 
the hurricane, and the first strong gust at 8 o'clock was 
followed by a sound of shattering glass. Several of the 
windows of the general oftices overhead had given away 
under the almost irresistible pressure. This was the 
beginning of seven hours of mortal dread. 

"The storm continued to rage with unabated fury and 
the roar of the wind was accompanied by the sound of 
crashing glass, as one after another of the many windows 
was torn from its fastenings and shattered against the 
brick walls of the building or upon the sidewalk below. 
Women clasped their children in their arms, as though 



94 THRILLING EXPERIENCES. 

they expected to be torn asunder the next moment. Men 
began to scan the pillars and partition walls supporting 
the floor above and to take up such positions as seemed 
to be most conducive to safety in the event the huge 
building: was razed by the storm. 

"The crashing of glass was soon followed by a sound of 
ripping and tearing. Section after section of the tin roof 
vras rolled up like sheets of parchment and hurled hun- 
dreds of feet away. To add to the terror and confusion, 
the electric lights suddenly went out and the building 
was left in darkness, except where the trainmen with 
their lanterns stood. 

"Then many moved toward the main entrance of the 
building, with the evident intention of seeking other 
quarters, but they were checked at the door by the blind- 
ing sheet of water which was being driven by the wind 
Mith mighty force, and which lay between them and any 
place of refuge. They appeared to hesitate between a 
choice of being drenched by water and possibly struck 
by a flying section of roof and of remaining in the depot 
until the end. 

"The question was soon settled. Even as they looked 
the roof of the Grand Central Hotel was torn off, many of 
its inmates rushing into the street. Almost simultane- 
ously a wail went up from the people in the Lawlor Hotel 
as the big skylight on top was torn loose and fell crash- 
ing down the shaft, causing pandemonium. This seemed 
to satisfy those in the depot that no haven of safety could 
be found, and they determined to make the best of the 
situation. 

"Just then, above the roar of the wind, the crashing of 
glass and the flapj)ing and pounding and tearing of tin, a 
new sound was heard. It was that of falling brick. 
Every one stood crouched, prepared to leap to either side 



THRILLING EXPERIENCES. 95 

as the occasion might require. Every one realized the 
gravity of the situation, but, there was no shrieking, no 
fainting. Every woman stood the ordeal with such forti- 
tude as to lend courage to even the faintest-hearted man. 
Even the babies were mute and clung to their mothers' 
necks in breathless despair. 

"Nearer and nearer came that awful rumbling. A 
shower of brick and mortar fell in the rear of the women's 
waiting-room. Nothing remained of the tin-covered awn- 
ing. Few if any doubted that the end had come and that 
in another moment all would be buried beneath the ruins. 
"Suddenly the sound ceased. The brick had fallen 
and the lower story of the building remained intact. It 
was soon learned that the entire wall stood unbroken and 
that the fall of brick and mortar was but the collapse of 
several large chimneys surmounting the top of the build- 
ing. 

"As soon as this became known the effect upon the awe- 
stricken mass was electrical. Men lighted cigars, women 
cheered and laughed, and, though more chimneys fell, 
more glass was shivered and the loosened tin on the roof 
continued to pound furiously until nearly 3 o'clock in the 
morning, there was no more panic, and all felt that the 
building would withstand the fury of the storm. And 
it did." 

HOW HE GOT INTO AND OUT OF GALVESTON. 

A. V. Kellogg, civil engineer in the employ of the Hous- 
ton and Texas Central Railroad, with headquarters at 
Houston, told an interesting story of how he got into and 
out of Galveston during and after the great storm, and of 
his observations in the stricken citj. He went to Galves- 
ton Saturday morning, over the Galveston, Houston and 
Henderson Road, arriving a few hours after the storm 
began. 



96 THRILLING EXPERIENCES. 

"When we crossed the bridge over Galveston Bay, 
going into Galveston," said Mr. Kellogg, "the water had 
reached an elevation equal to the bottom caps of the pile 
bents, or two feet below the level of the track. After 
crossing the bridge and reaching a point some two miles 
beyond, we were stopped by reason of a washout of the 
track ahead, and were compelled to wait one hour for a 
relief train to come over the Galveston, Houston and 
Henderson track. During this period of one hour the 
water rose a foot and a half, running over the rails of the 
track. 

"The relief train signaled us to return half a mile to 
higher ground, where the passengers were transferred, 
the train crew leaving with the passengers and going on 
the relief train. The water had reached an elevation of 
eight or ten inches above the Galveston, Houston and 
Henderson track, and was flowing in a westward direc- 
tion at a terrific speed. The train crew was compelled to 
wade ahead of the engine and dislodge driftwood from 
the track. 

"At 1:15 we arrived at the Santa Fe Union Depot. At 
that period of the day the wind was increasing and had 
then reached a velocity of about thirty-five miles an hour. 

"After arriving at Galveston I immediately went to 
the Tremont Hotel, where I remained the balance of the 
day and during the night. At 5:30 the water had begun 
to creep into the rotunda of the hotel, and by 8 o'clock 
it was twenty-six inches above the floor of the hotel, or 
about six and one-half feet above the street level. 

"The front windows of the hotel were blown out, the 
roof was torn off and the skylights over the rotunda fell 
crashing on the floor below. The refugees began to come 
into the hotel between 5:30 and 8 o'clock, until at least 
800 or 1,000 persons had sought safety there. The floors 
were strewn with people all during the night. 



THRILLING EXPERIENCES. 9T 

"Manager George Korst did everything in his power to 
help the sufferers from the effects of the storm and to 
give them shelter. When the wind was blowing from the 
northeast it was at a velocity of about forty-five miles an 
hour, but at 8 o'clock it had reached the climax, the speed 
then being fully 100 miles. The vibration of the 
hotel was not unlike that of a box car in motion. I tried 
to sleep that night, but there was so much noise and con- 
fusion from the crashing of buildings that I could not get 

any rest. 

"I arose early Sunday morning. The sights in the 
streets were simply appalling. The water on Tremont 
street had lowered some eight feet from the high-water 
mark, leaving the pavement clear for two blocks north 
and seven blocks south of the Tremont Hotel. The 
streets were full of debris, the wires were all down and 
the buildings were in a very much damaged condition. 
Every building in the business district was damaged to 
some extent, with but one or two exceptions, noticeably 
the Levy Building and Union Depot, both of which 
remain intact and went through the storm without a 
scratch. 

"The refugees came pouring into the heart of the city, 
many of them having but little clothing, and scores were 
almost naked. They were homeless and without food or 
drink, and many had lost their all and were really in des- 
titute circumstances. 

"Mayor Jones issued a call for a mass meeting, which 
was held Sunday morning at 9 o'clock, and was attended 
by a large number of prominent citizens. Steps were 
taken to furnish provisions and relieve the suffering of the 
refugees and bury the dead. 

"A conservative estimate of the number of people killed 
©r drowned is from 1,500 to 3,000. 



98 THRILLING EXPERIENCES. 

"Early in the morning it was learned that the water 
supply had been cut off from some unknown reason. I 
presume that it was caused by the English ship which 
was blown up against the bridges, cutting the pipes. At 
all events the city was without water, and something 
had to be done by the citizens of Houston to relieve the 
situation. People who had depended on cisterns, of 
course, had their resources swept away, and there were 
but few large reservoirs to be found in the business dis- 
trict. 

"The scene on the docks was a terrible one. The small 
working fleet and the larger schooners were washed up 
over the docks and railroad tracks in frightful confusion. 
The Mallory docks were demolished. The elevators were 
torn in shreds. Three ocean liners were anchored off 
the docks and seemed to be in good condition. The dam- 
age to the shipping interests is something immense, the 
Huntington improvements being entirely swept away. 

"I tried to get out of the town as quick as I could, and 
succeeded in securing passage on the first sloop which 
sailed, the Annie K., Captain Willoughby. We sailed 
from the Twenty-second slip at 11 o'clock, with seven 
people aboard. When we got outside of the harbor 
we found a terrible gale blowing and the sea running 
very high. Under three reefs and the peak down, we 
set our course for North Galveston. 

"As we passed Pelican Flats we could see the English 
steamer anchored off over toward where the railroad 
bridge should be, and came to the conclusion that she 
had evidently broken the water mains and cut the supply 
off from the city. Another ocean liner could be seen off* 
the shore of Texas City, in what would seem to have been 
about two feet of water in a normal tide. 

"We passed within a few hundred yards of where the 



THRILLING EXPERIENCES. 99 

Half-Moon Lighthouse once stood, but could see no evi- 
dence of the lighthouse, it being completely washed 
away. 

"The waters of the bay were strewn with hundreds of 
carcasses of dead animals. We had a A'^ery hazardous 
passage, running against a five-mile tide, but managed to 
reach North Galveston at 1:35 o'clock. 

"At North Galveston we found that a tidal wave had 
crossed the peninsula, carrying destruction in its path. 
The factory building and the opera-house were completely 
blown down and other buildings destroyed. While there 
were no deaths reported at North Galveston, there were 
many hardships endured during the battle with the ele- 
ments." 

NEWSPAPER MAN'S GRAPHIC DESCRIPTION OF 
THE FLOOD. 

"It was one of the most awful tragedies of modem times 
which has visited Galveston. The city is in ruins and the 
dead will number probably 1,000." 

So says Richard Spillane, a well-known Galveston 
newspaper man, the first of his profession to come from 
the stricken city after the hurricane, and who arrived at 
Houston, after a perilous trip. He continued: 

"I am just from the city, having been commissioned 
by the Mayor and Citizens' Committee to get in touch 
with the outside world and appeal for help. Houston 
was the nearest point at which working telegraph instru- 
ments could be found, the wires, as well as nearly all the 
buildings, between here and the Gulf of Mexico being- 
wrecked. 

"When I left Galveston, shortly before noon yesterday, 
the people were organizing for the prompt burial of the 

LffC. 



lot) THRILLING EXPERIENCES. 

dead, the distribution of food and all necessary work 
after a period of disaster. 

"The wreck of Galveston was brought about by a tem- 
pest so terrible that no words can adequately describe 
its intensity, and by a. flood which turned the city into a 
raging sea. The Weather Bureau records show that the 
wind attained a velocity of eighty-four miles an hour, 
when the measuring instruments blew away, so it is 
impossible to tell what was the maximum. 

"The storm began at 2 o'clock Saturday morning. Pre- 
vious to that a great storm had been raging in the gulf, 
and the tide was very high. The wind at first came from 
the north and was in direct opposition to the force from 
the' gulf. While the storm in the gulf piled the water 
upon the beach side of the city, the north wind piled the 
water from the bay onto the bay part of the city. 

"About noon it became evident that the city was going 
to be visited with disaster. Hundreds of residences 
along the beach front were hurriedly abandoned, the fam- 
ilies fleeing to dwellings in higher portions of the city. 
Every home was opened to the refugees, black or white. 
The winds were rising constantly, and it rained in tor- 
rents. The wind was so fierce that the rain cut like a 
knife. 

"By 5 o'clock the waters of the gulf and bay met, and 
by dark the entire city was submerged. The flooding of 
the electric light plant and the gas plants left the city in 
darkness. To go upon the streets was to court death. 
The wind was then at cyclonic velocity. Koofs, cisterns, 
portions of buildings, telegi^aph poles and walls were fall- 
ing, and the noise of the wind and the crashing of the 
buildings were terrifying in the extreme. 

"The wind and waters rose steadily from dark until 
1:45 o'clock Sunday morning. During all this time the 



THRILLING EXPERIENCES. 101 

people of Galveston were like rats in traps. The highest 
portion of the city Vv^as four to five feet under water, 
while in the great majority of cases the streets were sub- 
merged to a depth of ten feet. To leave a house was to 
drown. To remain was to court death in the wreckage. 
Such a night of agony has seldom been equaled. 

"Without apparent reason, the waters suddenly began 
to subside at 1:45 a. m. Within twenty minutes they 
had gone down two feet, and before daylight the streets 
were practically freed of the flood waters. In the mean- 
time the wind had veered to the southeast. 

"Very few if any buildings escaped injury. There is 
hardly a habitable dry house in the city. When the peo- 
ple who had escaped death went out at daylight to view 
the work of the tempest and the floods they saw the most 
horrible sights imaginable. 

"In the three blocks from Avenue N to Avenue P, in 
Tremont street, I saw eight bodies. Four corpses were 
in one yard. The whole of the business front for three 
blocks in from the gulf was stripped of every vestige of 
habitation, the dwellings, the great bathing establish- 
nients, the Olympia and every structure having been 
either carried out to sea or its ruins piled in a pyramid 
far into the town, according to the vagaries of the tem- 
pest. 

"The first hurried glance over the city showed that the 
largest structures, supposed to be the most substantially 
built, suffered the greatest. The Orphans' Home, 
Twenty-first street and Avenue M, fell like a house of 
cards. How many dead children and refugees are in the 
ruins could not be ascertained. 

"Of the sick in St. Mary's Infirmary, together with the 
attendants, only eight ?.re understood to have been 
saved. 



102 THRILLING EXPERIENCES. 

''The Old Woman's Home, on Eosenberg avenue, col- 
lapsed, and the Kosenberg Schoolhouse is a mass of 
wreckage. The Ball High School is but an empty shell, 
crushed and broken. Every church in the city, with pos- 
sibly one or two exceptions, is in ruins. 

''At the forts nearly all the soldiers are reported dead, 
they having been in temporary quarters, which gave them 
no protection against the tempest or the flood. 

"The bay front from end to end is in ruins. Nothing 
but piling and the wreck of great vv^arehouses remains. 
The elevators lost all their superworks and their stocks 
are damaged by water. 

"The life-saving station at Fort Point was carried 
away, the crew being swept across the bay fourteen miles 
to Texas City. I saw Captain Haines yesterday and he 
told me that his wife and one of his crew were drowned. 

"The shore at Texas City contains enough wreckage to 
rebuild a city. Eight persons who were swept across the 
bay during the storm were picked up there alive. Five 
corpses v/ere also picked up. In addition to the living 
and the dead which the storm cast up at Texas City, 
caskets and coffins from one of the cemeteries at Galves- 
ton were fished out of the water there. 

"The cotton mills, the bagging factory, the gas works, 
the electric light works and nearly all the industrial es- 
tablishments of the city are either wrecked or crippled. 
The flood left a slime about one inch deep over the whole 
city, and unless fast progress is made in burying corpses 
and carcasses of animals there is danger of pestilence. 

"Some of the stories of the escapes are miraculous. 
William Nisbett, a cotton man, was buried in the ruins of 
the Cotton Exchange saloon, and when dug out in the 
morning had no further injury than a few bruised fingers. 

"Dr. S. O. Young, secretary of the Cotton Exchange, 



THRILLING EXPERIENCES. 103 

was knocked senseless when his house collapsed, but was 
revived by the water and carried ten blocks by the hurri- 
cane. 

"A woman who had just given birth to a child was car- 
ried from her home to a house a block distant, the men 
who were carrying her having to hold her high above 
their heads, as the water was five feet deep when she was 
moved, 

''Many stories were current of houses falling and in- 
mates escaping. Clarence N. Ousley, editor of the Galves- 
ton Evening Tribune, had his family and the families of 
two neighbors in his house when the lower half crumbled 
and the upper part slipped down into the water. Not one 
in the house was hurt. 

"Of the Lavine family, six out of seven are reported 
dead. Of the Burnett family only one is known to have 
been saved. The family of Stanley G. Spencer, who met 
death in the Cotton Exchange saloon, is reported to be 
dead. 

"The Mistrot House, in the west end, was turned into a 
hospital. All of the regular hospitals of the city were 
unavailable. 

"Of the new Southern Pacific works little remains but 
the piling. Half a million feet of lumber was carried 
away, and Engineer Boschke says, as far as the company 
is concerned, it might as well start over again. 

"Eight ocean steamers were torn from their moor- 
ings and stranded in the bay. The Kendall Castle was 
carried over the flats from the Thirty-third street wharf 
to Texas City and lies in the wreckage of the Inman pier. 
The Norwegian steamer Gyller is stranded between Texas 
City and Virginia Point. An ocean liner was swirled 
around through the West Bay, crashed through the bay 
bridges and is now lying in a few feet of water near the 



104 THR'ILLING EXPERIENCES. 

wreckage of the railroad bridges. The steamship Taun- 
ton was carried across Pelican Point and is stranded 
about ten miles up toward East Bay. The Mallory 
steamer Alamo was torn from her wharf and dashed upon 
Pelican flats and the bow of the British steamer Red 
Cross, which had previously been hurled there. The stern 
of the Alamo is stove in and the bow of the Red Cross 
is crushed. 

"Down the channel to the jetties two other ocean 
steamships lie grounded. Some schooners, barges and 
smaller craft are strewn bottom side up along the slips 
of the piers. The tug Louise of the Houston Direct Navi- 
gation Company is also a wreck. 

"It will take a week to tabulate the dead and the miss- 
ing and to get anything near an approximate idea of the 
monetary loss. It is safe to assume that one-half of the 
property of the city is wiped out and that one-half of the 
residents have to face absolute poverty. 

"At Texas City three of the residents were drowned. 
One man stepped into a well by a mischance and his 
corpse v/as found there. Two other men ventured along 
the bay front during the height of the storm and were 
killed. There are but few buildings at Texas City that 
do not tell the story of the storm. The hotel is a com- 
plete ruin. 

"For ten miles inland from the shore it is a common 
sight to see small craft, such as steam launches, schooners 
and oyster sloops. The life boat of the life-saving station 
was carried half a mile inland, while a vessel that was an- 
chored in Moses Bayou lies high and dry five miles up 
from Lamarque." 

WENT THROUGH THE STORM OF 1875. 

"The great storm which has just devastated Galveston 
reminds me of the terrible equinoctial storm that swept 



THRILLING EXPERIENCES. 105 

over that city in September, 1875," said Dr. Henry Stan- 
hope Bunting of room 500, 57 Washington street, Chicago. 
"At that time I was a resident of Galveston, and my 
experience was similar to that of many others who es- 
caped. The loss of life and property was great. 

"The situation of Galveston exposes the city to the 
waves whenever there is a severe windstorm. The island 
is thirty miles long and quite narrow. It is really only a 
great sand bar, rising four to five feet above the surface 
of the gulf. At their highest point the sand banks are not 
more than ten feet above the normal surface of the water. 
"The city is built at the northern end of the island at 
the entrance to Galveston Bay. The opening to the bay 
between the end of the island and the mainland gives 
the water a free sweep over the jetties when a heavy wind 
is blowing. In this way waves running several feet high 
pour immense volumes of w^ater into the bay, causing its 
waters to rise many feet and flood the lowlands. In the 
rush of the waters back toward the gulf the narrow chan- 
nel entrance to the bay is not a sufficient outlet and the 
flood sweeps into the city. 

"It is seldom that the equinoctial storms are so severe 
that the back flow of the water inundates the island. In 
very heavy storms, however, as in the latest hurricane, 
the great waves might sweep across the island from the 
gulf and add to the work of destruction in rushing back 
to the gulf from the bay. 

"The houses have no cellars. They are built on pillars 
of brick several feet above the ground. When the water 
is high it v^ashes up to the first floor and sometimes drives 
the occupants of the building to the second story. 

"When the storm struck in 1875 we were at a house 
near the water's edge five miles down the island from 
Galveston. The waves lifted the house off its brick pil- 



106 THRILLING EXPERIENCES. 

lars and dropped it iu the water and sand tilted at an 
angle of 45 degrees. Vv'ith other families we took refuge 
at a house on much higher ground, but even there we were 
driven to the second story." 

AWFUL EXPERIENCES DUEING THE FLOOD. 

FIFTY-TWO FAMILIES MEET DEATH IN ONE 

HUGE BUILDING— RESCUERS' LOVED 

ONES PERISH. 

John Davis, having apartments in a huge flat building, 
whose wife was killed, and for whose body he vv^as search- 
ing in the debris of the structure, said there were fifty- 
two families there when the house collapsed, and he was 
the only survivor. 

Policeman Joseph Bird and John Rowan rescued about 
100 people Saturday from the fury of the storm. They 
returned to the police station only when the high water 
floated the patrol wagon and threatened to drovv' n their 
team. They had no idea that the waters of the gulf had in- 
vaded the western portion of the city where they lived un- 
til they returned to the police station. They started im- 
mediately for their homes, but their families had been 
swept away. Policeman Bird lost his wife and five chil- 
dren and Rowan his wife and three children. 

Many refugees were picked up at Hitchcock and taken 
to the Jacquard Hotel, where they were given every pos- 
sible attention. Many of these refugees were suffering 
from injuries and had been in the water for some time. 

Most of these persons had floated in on drift and rafts, 
and one of the party came ashore on a piano. 

One hundred ammunition boxes from Camp Hawley 
were found near Hitchcock, and a pile-driver from Hunt- 
ington wharf was driven inland to within a few hundred 
yards of the town. The prairie was covered with drift of 



THRILLING EXPERIENCES. 107 

all kinds, dead cattle, water craft of all sizes, buggies, 
wagons and such like. Searching parties found dozens 
of bodies in Hall's Bayou and buried them. 

SEES FAMILY SWEPT AWAY. 

One of the refugees w^ho arrived at Houston on the 
first relief train from Texas Citj, just out of Galveston, 
and who had a sad experience in the hurricane, was S. 
W. Clinton, an engineer at the fertilizing plant at the 
Galveston stock yards. Mr. Clinton's family consisted of 
his wife and six children. When his house was washed 
away he managed to get two of his little boys safely to a 
raft, and with them he drifted helplessly about. His raft 
collided with wreckage of every description and was split 
in two and he was forced to witness the drovv^niug of his 
sons, being unable to help them in any way. Mr. Clinton 
says parts of the city are seething masses of v/ater. 

ESCAPED, BUT LOST HIS WIFE. 

Mr. Jennings, a slater, who resided at Thirty-eighth 
street and Avenue M ^, Galveston, got to the mainland 
in about the same manner as Clinton. After losing his 
wife, he set out, and by swimming and drifting around 
reached the mainland. 

William Smith, a boy about 18 years old, whose home 
is in West Texas, had a narrow escape. Young Smith 
was blown off the docks and came ashore in the drift- 
wood. Despite the difficulty he experienced in keeping 
afloat he held out to the end and reached the shore safe 
and sound. 

A. L. Forbes, a United States postal clerk, w^hose car 
was attached to a train which passed through the terri- 
tory not far from Galveston on Sunday, said that at 



108 THRILLING EXPERIENCES. 

Oyster Creek the train crew and passengers heard cries 
coming out of a mass of debris. Several persons answered 
the cries and found a negro woman fastened under a roof. 
They pulled her out and she informed her rescuers there 
were others under the roof. A further search resulted in 
the finding- of nine dead bodies, all colored persons. 

When the train arrived at Angleton, the jail, all the 
churches and a number of houses had been blown down. 

A GENUINE HELL UPON EARTH. 

Joseph Johnson, a prominent citizen of Austin, Tex., 
who was among the list of missing, arrived at home 
Wednesday evening, direct from Galveston, and was 
received with joy by his family. Mr. Johnson went to 
Galveston on Friday, the day before the disaster, and 
was there during all the terrible storm and until Tues- 
day night, where he aided in the work of rescue and saw 
some sorrowing sights. He said many of the survivors 
got through the flood almost by miracle. He saw young 
men who were black-haired on Saturday come out of the 
ordeal with hair turned completely white on Sunday. 

"It would take 5,000 men one year," he says, "to clear 
the streets and town of Galveston, so complete is the 
ruin. The biggest liar in America could not do justice to 
the existing condition of affairs there. I was in the Tre- 
mont Hotel during the storm. The building was 
thronged with refugees; women were praying throughout 
the night, and above the roar of the wind could be heard 
crash of buildings and splash of the waves against the 
building. W^e expected the hotel to go down any min- 
ute. At daylight Sunday morning I and four others 
started out to view the ruins. W^e passed eight bodies 
within a block, and when we reached the beach, where 



THRILLING EXPERIENCES. 109 

the waters were still running high, we stayed some time, 
and while there about one body per minute passed us, 
floating with the tide. Homes that were formerly ele- 
gant are a mass of wreckage. 

"When I left the city the stench from decaying human 
bodies was simply terrible and almost unbearable. It 
is with difficulty that they can be handled at all, and the 
only ones who can now do the work are negroes. The 
sight is sickening. It is impossible to make any effort 
at identification, except to keep a record of the jewels 
and valuables taken from them. All pretense at holding- 
inquests was abandoned yesterday. The bodies are piled 
on drays and hauled to the wharf, where they are lowered 
into the water. They are piled one on the other like so 
many animals, it being impossible to give them any atten- 
tion. The bodies of poor and rich alike are treated in 
this manner. Hundreds of men and women who are 
seeking friends or relatives who are among the missing 
surround the places where the bodies are handled, and 
their cries of distress are almost unbearable. 

"There was not a living animal on the island so far as I 
could see. Thousands of head of cattle and horses were 
drowned and killed. No cats or dogs survived the storm 
and not a bird is to be seen. No one can make anything 
like a reliable estimate of the number of deaths. I had 
to walk for twelve miles from the place where I landed 
on the mainland before I got out of the wreckage. The 
water swept the coast for a distance of twenty miles 
inland, and dead bodies are to be seen all over this terri- 
tory. I passed a large number on my walk to get a train. 
The stench in this storm-swept part of the mainland is 
awful. It is estimated that over 5,000 head of cattle 
were drowned by the gulf waters in that section." 



110 THRILLING EXPERIENCES. 

STKANGE DEATH OF A WEALTHY ENGLISHMAN. 

One of the most pathetic stories of suffering in Galves- 
ton was brought to light Friday morning when the South- 
ern Pacific train arrived at New Orleans from Houston. 
Among the passengers were Mrs. Mary Quayle of Liver- 
pool, England, and Mr. Jonathan Hale of Gloversville, 
N. Y. Mrs. Quayle came from New York to Galveston, 
arriving there on the Thursday before the storm, accom- 
panied by her husband, Edward Quayle, a tabulater on 
the Liverpool Cotton Exchange. Mrs. Quale and her hus- 
band took apartments in the Lucas Terrace, a fashion- 
able place in the eastern end of Galveston Island. 

All day Saturday, the day of the storm, her husband 
was not feeling well and remained in his room most of 
the time, lying down on a couch. When the storm be- 
came very bad after 8 o'clock he arose and went to the 
window to look out in the darkness, hoping to see, by 
an occasional flash of lightning, whether or not there 
was danger of destruction, as was greatly feared. 

Suddenly there came an unusually violent fit of wind 
and the window out of which Mr. Quayle was peering 
was literally sucked out as if by a mighty air-pump, and 
he was taken along with it. Mrs. Quayle, so far as she 
was able to explain, instead of being drawn along in the 
direction of the storm, was thrown in the opposite di- 
rection against the door of her room. 

When she came to her senses she found she was not 
severely hurt, and began to call for her husband. 
There was no reply, and in her fright she fairly shrieked 
out his name. Mr. Hale, who occupied the adjoining 
room, came to her assistance and cared for her until dawn 
of Sunday morning. Then they went out together and 
searched the adjacent portion of the city for her missing 
husband. But not a trace of him was to be found. The 



THRILLING EXPERIENCES. Ill 

search was kept up until Monday night, by which time 
all the wounded had been cared for in the best possible 
way and all the unburied dead had become putrid. Then 
Mr. Hale brought Mrs. Quayle via Houston to New Or- 
leans and they immediately took the through Louisville 
& Nashville train for New York. 

Mr. Quayle had on his person some very valuable jew- 
elry and quite a large sum of money at the time he dis- 
appeared. Luckily, however, Mrs. Quayle had enough 
money on her to pay her way back to England. She 
was completely overcome by fright and although having 
not yet reached the middle age, had all the appearance 
of being a frail, decrepit old woman, so terrible had been 
her recent and trying ordeal. She was compelled to re- 
main in her berth while traveling. 

UNNERVED BY WHAT HE SAW. 

Michael B. Hancock, 3452 Dearborn street, Chicago, 
unnerved by the scenes of horror he witnessed among 
the ruins of Galveston on Tuesday, hastened to leave the 
stricken city, and arrived in Chicago Thursday after- 
noon. Sights of the dead bodies constantly before him, 
and, according to his statements, he had been practically 
without sleep since he first set foot on the island. 

Hancock, w4io is a Pullman car porter, had a run from 
Chicago to Austin, Tex., but when he reached the end of 
his trip Monday he heard of the disaster at Galveston 
and decided to go with a relief party leaving Austin that 
night. The relief train was able to proceed only as far 
as Houston, and from there the goods were transported 
to the coast and put aboard a small excursion steamer. 

Hancock was accompanied by his conductor, Frank 
Alphons. Although they were with the relief party, they 
were stopped several times by the pickets at the steamer 



112 THRILLING EXPERIENCES. 

landings. After much difficulty tliey gained a view of 
the city and the dead. 

While in the midst of their sightseeing they were ac- 
costed by United States soldiers and commanded to assist 
in the recovery and burning of the dead bodies. Feign- 
ing to acquiesce, they managed to draw away from the 
soldiers, and then made a run for the beach. A small 
boat carried them to the mainland, and they made a 
forced march of twelve miles before they were able to 
obtain a vehicle to take them to Houston. Reaching 
Houston late at night, they started at once for Austin and 
the north. Alphons stopped at St. Louis and Hancock 
came straight through. 

When seen at his residence Thursday night Hancock 
said: 

"The sights in the wrecked city of Galveston were the 
most horrible that I have ever witnessed. Dead bodies 
were everywhere. Part of the city had been blotted out. 
For a distance of two miles along the bay houses had 
been washed away and only the foundations left. The 
water had not yet entirely receded, and where business 
blocks and fine residences had once stood were simply 
holes marking the foundations. These were filled with 
floating debris and bodies of the drowned. 

"The sight was ghastly in the extreme, as the working 
parties would arrive at one of these holes and start to 
drag the bodies of the dead from the pools of dirty water. 
Every one was expected to work at recovering the dead, 
and the soldiers corralled Alphons and me and told us 
that we would have to assist in the work. At that time 
we were standing watching a party of five men working 
under a guard. They were lassoing the bodies and pull- 
ing them out on the higher places, and then piling them 
on boards preparatory to burning them. 



THRILLING EXPERIENCES. 113 

"Just as some of the regulars were guarding us a ter- 
rible outcry arose from the men engaged in the rescue 
work. Running quickly to the scene of trouble, we saw 
one of the workers was in the grasp of one of the soldiers. 
Another soldier was covering him with his rifle. The 
man, a Mexican, dressed in shabby clothes and wearing 
a drooping sombrero, was standing sullenly eying the 
crowd, with one hand in his pocket. His captor grasped 
his arm suddenly and dragged his hand from the pocket, 
and five mutilated fingers which he had hacked from 
corpses dropped to the ground. Each had one or more 
rings on it. 

"With the sight of these evidences of crime before them 
the workers seemed to go mad, and with cries of 'Lynch 
him!' 'Burn him!' made for the unfortunate wretch. Be- 
fore that he had been standing stolid and unmoved, but 
the approaching danger shook his courage, and he sunk 
to the ground pleading for mercy. But there was no 
mercy for the monster, and the men were only prevented 
from killing him then and there bv the interference of the 
soldiers. 

" 'Leave him to us,' said the corporal in charge of the 
party as he ranged his men around the prisoner. 'We will 
attend to his case,' and with that he had the jMexican 
marched over and placed against a post not more than 
fifteen feet from the bodies he had mutilated. Selecting 
four soldiers as a firing party, he lined them up ten feet 
from the doomed man, and with the word 'Fire!' four 
bullets pierced the ghoul's body and he fell dead. Such 
was a measure of the speedy justice which is being meted 
out to vandals in Galveston. Besides this case, I heard 
of several more where the guilty men were given the 
benefit of a short court-martial, then sentenced to death 
and shot. 



114 THRILLING EXPERIENCES. 

"I told Alphons that I did not want any of that kind 
of work, and that I never could stand the notion of 
handling the bodies, and suggested that we escape. He 
agreed with me, and we gradually edged away from the 
soldiers and finally made a run and reached the beach. 
Here we hired a small boy to row us to the mainland, and 
from there we had to walk twelve miles before we could 
get a rig to take us back to Houston. 

"It will be a long time before I will want to return to 
Galveston, or before I can forget the terrible scenes I 
witnessed there. Since I left there I have been seeing 
the dead bodies all day, lying stark and stiff, with looks 
of terror on their faces, as though they had realized that 
a sure death was before them, and at night I have 
dreamed of having to help handle them. I tell you such 
things wear on a man, and I will bless the time when I 
can forget that I was ever in Galveston. 

*^The ruins show that the tidal wave must have struck 
the city broadside, as the buildings are washed away in 
almost a straight line back from the shore. The wave 
swept away buildings as far as twelve blocks inland for 
a space of nearly two miles. This ruined part comprised 
all the best part of the city. All the city buildings and 
the entire business portion of the city were swept away, 
and nothing remains to mark the spots where business 
blocks stood except half-submerged foundations filled 
with boards and dead bodies. 

"The inhabitants who were rendered homeless and 
were not able to leave the city are now living in tents 
furnished by the United States government. Several dis- 
tributing stations had been established and forces of men 
were busy issuing food and clothing to the unfortunate 
people. There appeared to be no lack of provisions, but 
water is scarce and there is no ice. While we were there 



THRILLING EXPERIENCES. 115 

the heat was almost unendurable, and the stench from 
the bodies made the task of the relief party anything 
but pleasant. Water has to be hauled for several miles. 
The electric-light plant was destroyed and the city is 
without light, but the moon has shone brightly, and the 
work of finding the bodies has been carried on day and 
night. 

"Conservative estimates of the number drowned made 
by persons familiar with the city place the loss of life at 
5,000. No one knows just how many were killed, and it 
will be difficult for an accurate statement to be ever 
made, as the authorities are making no attempt at identi- 
fying the dead, but are bending all their efforts toward 
getting the city cleaned up in order to prevent a pesti- 
lence. At first relatives of those killed were allowed to 
accompany the searching parties, but this was found to 
be too slow a method, and now the pickets are instructed 
to prevent any one not connected with relief parties from 
entering the city. 

"For the first two days the bodies were carried out to 
sea in steamers and dumped overboard, but now the of- 
ficials are piling up the slain in heaps with boards and 
pieces of timber among them, and, after saturating the 
pile with oil, set fire to them. 

"It hardly seems probable that they will rebuild Gal- 
veston, at least not on its present location. The city 
stood but little above the sea level, and the soil is sandy, 
which accounts for the complete destruction of most of 
the buildings even to the foundations. 

"Many refugees came north with us, and all seemed to 
be in a hurry to leave the scene of desolation. They 
acted as though dazed, and many were unable to talk 
intelligently regarding their escape. All along the line 
we were besieged with questions regarding the safety of 



116 THRILLING EXPERIENCES. 

different people, but of course were unable to give our 
questioners any reliable information. 

"Smaller towns through Texas that were struck by the 
hurricane had buildings blown down and a few casualties 
resulting. However, Galveston was the only city to suffer 
from the tidal wave, and that accounts for the large loss 
of life. Most of the dead in Galveston were drowned, 
and but few were killed by falling timbers. In Houston 
several buildings were blown down and about ten persons 
killed." 



CHAPTER V, 

Belief Sent from All Parts of the World as Soon as the True Situatioa of 
AflTairs was Made Known— Millions of Dollars Subscribed aud Thou- 
sands of Carloads of Supplies Forwarded to the Desolated City. 

MAYOR JONES, of Galveston, issued his appeal to the 
United States for help on the 11th inst., and the response 
was prompt aud liberal. 

His call for help was as follows: 

"TO THE PUBLIC: 

"It is my opinion, based on personal information, that 
5,000 people have lost their lives here. Approximately 
one-third of the residence portion of the city has been 
swept away. There are several thousand people who are 
homeless and destitute — how many there is no way of 
finding out. Arrangements are now being made to have 
the women and children sent to Houston and other places, 
but the means of transportation are limited. Thousands 
are still to be cared for here. We appeal to you for im- 
mediate aid. 

"WALTER J. JONES, 
"Mayor of Galveston.'^ 

The same day the General Relief Committee of Galves- 
ton issued the following: 

"Galveston, Tex., Sept. 11. — To the Public of America: 

"A conservative estimate of the loss of life is that it will 

reach 3,000; at least 5,000 families are shelterless and 

wholly destitute. The entire remainder of the population 

is suffering in greater or less degree. 

117 



118 RELIEF FOR THE STRICKEN. 

"Not a single church, school or charitable institution, 
of which Galveston had so many, is left intact. Not a 
building escaped damage and half the whole number were 
entirely obliterated. 

"There is immediate need for food, clothing and house- 
hold goods of all kinds. If near by cities will open asy- 
lums for women and children the situation will be greatly 
relieved. 

"Coast cities should send us water as well as provisions, 
including kerosene oil, gasoline and candles, 
"W. C. JONES, 

"Mayor. 
"M. LASKER, 

"President Island City Savings Bank. 
"J. D. SKINNER, 

"President Cotton Exchange. 
"C. H. McMASTER, 

"For Chamber of Commerce. 
"R. G. LOWE, 

"Manager Galveston News. 

"CLARENCE OWSLEY, 
"Manager Galveston Tribune. 
"Members of the Galveston Local Relief Committee." 

The Secretary of the Treasury at Washington received 
a joint telegram from Postmaster Griffen and Special 
Deputy Collector Rosenthal, at Galveston. This described 
the destruction caused by the storm and said: 

"Thousands homeless and destitute. Five hundred 
sheltered in custom house, which is practically roofless. 
Old custom house roofless and windows blown out. Need 
tents and 30,000 rations. Citizens' relief committee doing 
all in their power, but stock of undamaged provisions ex- 
hausted. With all the people housed, need extra force 



RELIEF FOR THE STRICKEN. 119 

six men to keep building in sanitary condition. Relief 
urgently requested." 

The Secretary sent the government revenue cutter 
Onondaga from Norfolk to Mobile, Ala,, to carry supplies 
to Galveston. 

The day the appeal was made Acting Secretary of 
War Meiklejohn at Washington authorized the charter- 
ing of a si)ecial train from St. Louis to carry Quartermas- 
ters' and commissary supplies to the relief of the destitute 
at Galveston. 

Orders were also issued by the War Department for the 
immediate shipment to Galveston of 855 tents and 50,000 
rations. These stores and supplies were divided between 
St. Louis and San Antonio. 

September 12 Governor Sayers issued the following 
statement : 

"Austin, Tex., Sept. 12. — Conditions at Galveston are 
fully as bad as reported. Communication, however, has 
been re-established between the island and the mainland, 
and hereafter transportation of supplies will be less diffi- 
cult. 

"The work of clearing the city is progressing fairly 
well, and Adjutant-General Scurry, under direction of the 
mayor, is patrolling the city for the purpose of preventing 
depredations 

"The most conservative estimate as to the number of 
deaths places them at 2,000. 

"Contributions from citizens of this state, and also from 
other states, are coming in rapidly and liberally, and it is 
confidently expected that within the next ten days the 
work of restoration by the people of Galveston will have 
begun in good earnest and with energy and success. 

"Of course, the destruction of property has been very 
great, not less than |10,000,000, but it is hoped and be- 



120 RELIEF FOR THE STRICKEN. 

Ueved that even this great loss will be overcome through 
the energy and self-reliance of the people. 

"JOSEPH D. SAYERS, Governor." 

On the same day the Galveston General Relief Commit- 
tee sent out this statement of the condition of affairs: 

"We are receiving numerous telegrams of condolence 
and offers of assistance. Near-by cities are supplying 
and will supply sufficient food, clothing, etc., for immedi- 
ate needs. Cities farther away can serve us best by send- 
ing money. Checks should be made payable to John 
Sealy, Chairman of the Finance Committee. All supplies 
should come to W. A. McVitie, Chairman Relief Com- 
mittee. 

"We have 25,000 people to clothe and feed for many 
weeks and to furnish with household goods. Most of these 
are homeless, and the others will require money to make 
their wrecked residences habitable. From this the world 
may understand how much money we will need. This 
committee will from time to time report our needs with 
more particularity. We refer to dispatch of this date of 
Major R. G. Lowe, which the committee fully endorses. 
All communicants will please accept this answer in lieu 
of direct response and be assured of the heartfelt grati- 
tude of the entire population. 

"W. C. JONES, Mayor. 
"M. LASKER, 
"J. D. SKINNER, 
"C. H. McMASTER, 
"R. G. LOWE, 
"CLARENCE OWSLEY." 

Colonel Amos S. Kimball, Assistant Quartermaster 
General, stationed at New York, was informed by army 



RELIEF FOR THE STRICKEN. 121 

contractors on Tuesday, the day the appeal was sent out, 
that Miss Helen Gould had purchased 50,000 army rations 
for the Galveston sufferers. The rations were started 
from the Pennsylvania railroad station in Jersey City 
at 3 p. m. the same day. Miss Gould went directly to the 
contractors who supply the army with provisions and or- 
dered rations identical with those furnished for soldiers, 
consisting of bacon, canned meats, beans, hard bread, and 
coffee. 

Chicago sent |25,000 to the Governor of Texas; Andrew 
Carnegie gave |20,000 in cash; Sir Thomas Lipton cabled 
from London to his manager at New York to send |1,000 
at once, which was done; Davenport, la., sent |1,600 im- 
mediately; Philadelphia wired Governor Sayers |5,000 
without delay; the American Steel Hoop Company, Amer- 
ican Tin Plate Company and American Sheet Steel Com- 
pany gave 110,000 each, and the Southern Pacific Railway 
Company, |5,000; Chicago started a trainload of supplies 
southward, as also did the State of California; the rail- 
roads hauling the cars free of charge; several newspapers 
in Chicago, New York and Kansas City either gave money 
or started relief trains with doctors, nurses and medical 
supplies, with orders to beat the best record time to Gal- 
veston; Cincinnati began with |1,000 and subscribed that 
amount daily for many days; Cleveland, O., telegraphed 
$2,500, and then made it |15,000; 30,000 rations and 900 
United States army tents were sent from St. Louis from 
the office of the United States Quartermaster; the mayor 
of Colorado Springs, Colo., was told by the citizens to 
send |2,000 at once and he did so; nearly all the theatres 
of the United States gave benefits; the State of Kansas, 
having |500 left in its Indian Famine Relief Fund, sent 
that; people of the Btate of Texas sent |15,000 to the 
Governor at Austin; Houston, Tex., raised |2,000 in cash; 



122 RELIEF FOR THE STRICKEN. 

the Governors of nearly all the States issued proclama- 
tions calling upon their people to subscribe to the relief 
fund, the mayors of most of the cities doing the same — ^the 
consequence being that Governor Sayers had about |250,- 
000 in hand in cash that very (Tuesday) night, with several 
hundreds of thousands more in sight and within call. 

By Thursday he had |900,000 in hand and on Saturday 
had 11,500,000, in addition to which were several thousand 
cars loaded with supplies of all sorts — provisions, medi- 
cines, disinfectants, fruits, clothing, wines for the sick, 
tents, bandages, stoves, oil — everything that could pos- 
sibly be needed. 

It was estimated that fully |2,500,000 would be neces- 
sary to carry the sufferers through the fall and winter 
and into the following spring, for thousands of them were 
ill and unable to provide in any way for themselves. There 
were fully 50,000 men, women and children in Galveston 
and Central and Southern Texas who were dependent 
upon charity. 

On Friday night Governor Sayers decided upon two 
important plans of action. The first was that he would 
allow all food and clothing shipped from the east and 
west to be concentrated in Galveston for the use of that 
city and that he would also grant that city the use of 
30,000 laborers for a period of thirty days, the same to 
be paid |1.50 per man per day for that time out of the 
relief fund. In addition thereto all requests for money 
from the Galveston Relief Committee were to be granted. 

His second decision was that he personally would look 
after the needs of the 30,000 destitute along the gulf coast 
on the mainland, provide them with flour and bacon and 
keep them going until they get on their feet again. Chair- 
man Sealy of the Galveston committee was to keep track 



RELIEF FOR THE STRICKEN. 123 

of the Galveston situation while the Governor looked out 
for the outside points. 

That night a local committee from Galveston vs^as sent 
to Houston and Virginia Point to take charge of the 
receiving and distribution of supplies that arrived there 
for the Galveston people. A serious matter confronting 
the authorities not only at the coast points, but in the 
cities near Galveston, was the rapid gathering of toughs, 
gamblers and rough characters generally, which after 
the flood were forced to leave Galveston island as they 
would not work. Others drifted into the mainland oppo- 
site Galveston and on to the neighboring towns by the 
hundreds in the hope of pickpocketing and the like among 
the crowds. 

All this gathering of disorderly characters made the 
peace officers rather uneasy as to the future. The police 
and troops in Galveston and the special officers on the 
mainland were constantly on the alert to keep down trou- 
ble and prevent all possible thieving and they did not 
get the upper hand of this element until they had shot a 
score or more. These fellows would steal the provisions 
and supplies sent by the generous people from the outside, 
and whenever caught were shot without delay. 

The following was sent out from Galveston on Satur- 
day, Sept. 15, which showed how serious the situation 
was: 

"Galveston, Texas, Sept. 14. — Hon. Joseph D. Sayers, 
Governor: After the fullest possible investigation here 
we feel justified in saying to you and through you to the 
American people that no such disaster has ever overtaken 
any community or section in the history of our country. 
The loss of life is appalling and can never be accurately 
determined. It is estimated at 5,000 to 8,000 people. 



124 RELIEF FOR THE STRICKEN. 

"There is cot a home in Galveston that has not been 
injured, while thousands have been destroyed. The prop- 
erty loss represents accumulations of sixty years and more 
millions than can be safely stated. Under these condi- 
tions, with ten thousand people homeless and destitute, 
with the entire population under a stress and strain diffi- 
cult to realize, we appeal directly in the hour of our great 
emergency to the sympathy and aid of mankind. 

"WALTER JONES, 

"Mayor. 
"R. B. HAWLEY, 

Congressman. 
"McKIBBIN, 
"Commander Department of Texas." 

General McKibbin, when he looked over the city three 
days before, had wired the War Department at Wash- 
ington that perhaps 1,000 people had perished. He was a 
conservative man, as army officers usually are, and when 
he signed a statement saying probably 8,000 persons had 
lost their lives his signature carried weight with it. 

Not only did the people of the United States sympathize 
deeply with the Texas sufferers, but those of other nations 
as well. President Loubet, of France, sent the following 
kind message to President McKinley at Washington : 

"Rambouillet Presidence, Sept. 12. — To His Excellency, 
the President of the United States of America: 

"The news of the disaster which has just devastated 
the State of Texas has deeply moved me. The sentiments 
of traditional friendship which unite the two republics 
can leave no doubt in your mind concerning the very sin- 
cere share that the President, the government of the re- 
public, and the whole nation take in the calamity that 



RELIEF FOR THE STRICKEN. 125 

has proved such a cruel ordeal for so many families in the 
United States. 

"It is natural that France should participate in the 
sadness, as well as in the joy, of the American people. 
I take it to heart to tender to your excellency our most 
heartfelt condolences, and to send to the families of the 
victims the expression of our afflicted sympathy. 

"EMILE LOUBET." 

President McKinley sent this answer the next day: 

"Executive Mansion, Washington, D. C, Sept. 13. — His 
Excellency, Emile Loubet, President of the French Re- 
public, Rambouillet, France: 

"I hasten to express, in the name of the thousands who 
have suffered by the disaster in Texas, as well as in be- 
half of the whole American people, heartfelt thanks for 
your touching message of sympathy and condolence. 

"WILLIAM McKINLEY." 

SCHOOL CHILDREN GAVE THEIR PENNIES. 

Even the school children of the country helped the suf- 
ferers with their pennies. Miss Ethel Donelson, a pupil 
at the Grant School, Chicago, wrote a letter to a Chicago 
daily paper suggesting that the school children give some 
of their pennies to the victims of the great hurricane. The 
idea was carried out and several thousand dollars was 
raised in this way in Chicago. The plan was adopted 
also in several other cities. 

When the suggestion w^as first made United States 
Postoffice Inspector Walter S. Mayor wrote as follows: 

"I was reared in Galveston; lived there from my in- 



126 RELIEF FOR THE STRICKEN. 

fancy until appointed to the government service nineteen 
years ago, and my mother and brother still live there. 

"When Chicago had its great fire in 1871 the people of 
Galveston sent a generous subscription, and with it was 
one made up by the boys of the school I attended. Our 
teacher, E. E. Crawford, gave us a holiday for the purpose, 
and the fifty-odd boys organized themselves into a num- 
ber of soliciting committees. I was on the committee 
with Charles Fowler, now one of Galveston's leading busi- 
ness men, and we two succeeded in collecting |8. In all, 
for our day's work we got together |200, which was turned 
into the general fund raised by the Citizens' Committee. 

"In the .twenty-nine years that have followed since then 
Chicago has pulled itself out of the ashes and risen to a 
high place among the world cities. Many forces have 
been brought to bear to accomplish this great end, but 
possibly the most potent one was the helping hand of the 
neighbor when help was needed. Among those who helped 
with their little mite may the school children of Galveston 
now be remembered. 

"I most heartily second Miss Donelson's suggestion that 
the school children of Chicago be given an opportunity to 
aid their little brothers and sisters in Galveston, many of 
whom are naked and orphaned by the terrible disaster 
that has come to them. 

"WALTER S. MAYEK, 
"Postoffice Inspector." 

On Thursday, Sept. 13, American residents and visitors 
in Paris, France, together with Frenchmen whose sym- 
pathies were aroused by the storm disaster in Texas, con- 
tributed 50,000 francs in twenty minutes for the relief 
of the sufferers. The Americans held a meeting in the 
Chamber of Commerce, which was largely attended. 



RELIEF FOR THE STRICKEN. 127 

United States Ambassador Porter was a leader among 
those who proposed to organize for the work of aiding in 
the relief. The Americans perfected an organization and 
elected General Porter President, George Munroe, the 
banker, Treasurer, and Francis Kimball Secretary. The 
subscription list was then opened and the 50,000 francs 
raised. The Mayor of Galveston was informed by cable 
of the result. 

The same day P. P. W. Houston, Member of Parliament 
for the West Toxteth division of Liverpool, England, and 
head of the Houston line of steamers, cabled £1,000 to 
Galveston for the relief of the sufferers. 

Members of the American colony in Berlin, Germany, 
held a meeting Sunday, September 16, at the United 
States Embassy and raised |5,000. 

Americans in London subscribed |10,000 and many 
London theatres gave benefits. 

The Marquis of Salisbury, Premier of England, the Em- 
peror William of Germany, the Emperor of Austria, the 
King of Italy, the Czar of Russia — in fact, nearly all 
the heads of state in the world cabled condolences, and 
the legislative bodies of foreign nations then in session 
passed resolutions of sympathy. 

By Saturday New York had raised |174,000; Chicago, 
191,000, together with many carloads of supplies which 
were sent as special trains, and the following cities had 
contributed the amounts named : 

St. Louis 161,300 

Boston 32,140 

Philadelphia 29,358 

New Orleans 26,000 

Cincinnati 7,314 

Cleveland 9,358 



128 RELIEF FOR THE STRICKEN. 

Colorado Springs I 7,100 

Minneapolis 13,430 

Denver 12,180 

Pittsburg 26,123 

Kansas City 15,321 

Portland, Oregon 1,000 

Peoria, 111 1,800 

Memphis 8,426 

San Francisco 16,000 

Louisville 12,585 

Baltimore 12,138 

Milwaukee 13,431 

Springfield, 111 2,314 

St. Paul 6,904 

Topeka, Kan 5,110 

Charleston, S. C 6,008 

Los Angeles 5,400 

Detroit 4,936 

Indianapolis 3,800 

Helena, Mont 3,400 

Johnstown, Pa 3,000 

As stated before, the total for the four and a half days 
ensuing from the time the appeal was issued — 11, 500,000 
was contributed, while an additional |1,000,000 was not 
long in following. Both Chicago and New York increased 
their subscriptions largely. 

In no case did the railroads charge for carrying the 
cars over their lines. 

THEIR PENALTIES WERE REMITTED. 

Navigation and other laws were set at naught by the 
United States authorities in order to help the Galveston 



RELIEF FOR THE STRICKEN. 129 

and other flood sufferers. On Friday, September 14, the 
following telegram was referred to General Spaulding 
by President McKinley: 

"^ "Galveston, Tex., Sept. 12, 1900.— To President of the 
United States: In consequence of calamity and fear of 
sickness numerous people wish to leave the city. All our 
rail communication is cut off. The revenue cutter of 
this district is disabled and no American steamer immedi- 
ately available. We therefore respectfully request you 
to instruct the proper authorities to allow British steam- 
ers Caledonia and Whitehall and any other foreign ves- 
sels now here, but compelled to proceed to New Orleans 
for cargo, to carry passengers from Galveston to New 

Orleans. 

"W. C. JONES, Mayor, 

"CLARENCE OUSLEY, 

"J. D. SKINNER, 

"C. H. McMASTER, 

"R. G. LOWE, 

"Committee." 

General Spaulding at once sent the following telegram; 

"W. 0. Jones, Mayor, Galveston, Tex.: Replying to 
your telegram of the 12th inst. addressed to President: 
If British steamships Caledonia, Whitehall, or other for- 
eign vessels now in your port carry passengers in distress 
from Galveston to New Orleans or other American ports 
during present conditions this department will con- 
sider favorably applications for remission of penalties 
which may be incurred under the law. Advise masters. 
"O. L. SPAULDING, Acting Secretary." 

On Friday night Governor Sayers stated that the work 
of relieving the flood sufferers was making excellent pro- 
gress. He said: 



130 RELIEF FOR THE STRICKEN. 

"Most generous contributions are coming in from all 
parts of the country sufficiently large to relieve the im- 
mediate wants as to food and clothing, and in the mean- 
time the people of Galveston are recovering themselves, 
and I have no hesitancy in expressing the firm conviction 
that a strong reaction from an almost mortal blow to the 
city has already set in, and that in a short while the city 
will be in a condition to resume its normal and progres- 
sive position in commercial life. After a full conference 
to-day with an authorized committee from Galveston, I 
am more than convinced that the people there will be able, 
with the assistance already given, to handle the situation 
successfully." 

HOW GALVESTON'S BUSINESS MEN WERE 
HELPED ALONG. 

As a rule there is no sentiment in business, but the 
retail merchants of Galveston whose business and for- 
tunes were swept away were not forgotten in the hour 
of need by the wholesale houses of Chicago, which an- 
nounced just after the disaster that stocks of goods would 
be shipped promptly and willingly, any time and terms 
being accorded to the business of the gulf city. The regu- 
lar way of determining credits was ignored, as was the 
credit man also. His cold judgment was not asked for, 
but instead sympathy and compassion for the unfortunate 
position of the merchants of the stricken city determined 
largely the stand the wholesalers announced they would 
take. 

In doing this the houses of Chicago had the precedent 
established by the outside world in its treatment of them 
in the days following the great Chicago fire. Chicago men 
said they will do as they were done by, and the Galveston 



RELIEF FOR THE STRICKEN. 131 

merchant had but to ask for the help he needed. Many 
Chicago houses wrote their Galveston customers at once 
advising them that they could have credit, time, and terms 
to suit themselves. This favor was also given to all busi- 
ness men who had lost all but names and prestige, 
whether they had been customers or not. 

Firms that never had had any business with Galveston 
or Texas firms stated that they stood ready to ship goods 
on the same terms. No business man in the damaged 
district, they said, whose misfortunes were due to the 
catastrophe could come to Chicago for supplies and go 
away without them even if he had not a dollar's worth 
of assets in the world, as long as he could show a former 
good business standing and repute. 

"We will take any and all risks," said one after another 
of the representatives of Chicago wholesale houses. "In 
the present emergency credits cannot be measured by 
the regular business standards. Humanity must dictate 
the terms on v/hich the merchants of Galveston who have 
bought from us, or who may want to buy from us, are 
to have goods and supplies." 

Firm after firm of the wholesale district, whether or 
not they now have trade in the afflicted territory, made 
the same statement. 

"We already have written to 200 former customers who 
are scattered along the coast, asking them how they came 
out of the disaster and offering them any terms of settle- 
ment their losses may warrant," said the credit man of 
one of the largest houses in the West, on the Friday fol- 
lowing the flood. "We will view the facts in their cases 
not from a business but from a sympathetic standpoint." 

"We are making our former customers time, terms and 
credits of their own asking," said the Vice-President of 
a great wholesale dry goods house. "We will make the 



132 RELIEF FOR THE STRICKEN. 

same terms to new customers who have been good busi- 
ness men." 

"We have advised former customers that their orders 
will be filled promptly for complete stocks," said the man- 
ager of a music and musical instrument house. "We have 
told them to make their own time and terms. We charge 
no interest." 

"We are looking at the men of Galveston and not at 
their present assets," said the managing partner of a 
wholesale clothing house having a large Texas trade. 

"We have sent word to fifty of our customers in Gal- 
veston to draw on us for new stocks without asking them 
if they have saved a penny from the catastrophe," said 
the President of one of the largest cigar and tobacco con- 
cerns in the city. 

"The conditions are so distressing as to shame a Chi- 
cagoan asking what any Galveston business man has to- 
day," said the manager of a grocery house. "We have 
never reached into Texas after trade, but shall do so im- 
mediately. Any business man wanting our goods can 
have them on his own terms." 

"Our customers in Galveston can send in their orders 
for new stocks and have them filled as quickly as if they 
forwarded double prices," said a furnishing goods whole- 
saler. "We are not asking them what their assets are." 



CHAPTER VI. 

Cremating Bodies by the Hundred in the Streets of Galveston — Negroes 
Faint While Handling the Decomposed Corpses — How Some of Those 
Rescued Escaped with Their Lives. 

FULLY 1,500 bodies were cremated at Galveston after 
it became apparent that the time necessary to bury them 
or cast them into the sea could not be taken, owing to 
their advanced state of decomposition. 

Many of the negroes who handled the bodies fell from 
fright and nausea. White volunteers took their places 
and the work went on. The volunteers bandaged their 
mouths and noses with cotton cloths saturated with dis- 
infectants and were relieved by other volunteers every 
hour. 

Fires could not be started every place where bodies 
were found. The usual plan was to collect all bodies 
within two blocks in one spot and then build the funeral 
pyre. On the remains of many women were valuable 
rings and jewelry, but the men did not attempt to remove 
the jewelry. It was burned with the owners. 

Officers Mass and Woodward reported that their two 
gangs burned 100 bodies, the majority women and chil- 
dren. The percentage of deaths among children was 
frightful. Sheriff Thomas and his negroes burned forty 
bodies on the beach near Tremont street. 

Catholic priests in charge of gangs reported 120 bodies 
burned. The sanitary experts pushed the work of burn- 
ing the dead. No other disposition was considered. Peo- 
ple who had lost relatives and friends made no objection 
and looked on the plan with favor. 

Disinfectants were used as never before in the world. 
The smell of the charnel house was driven away and the 

133 



134' DISPOSAL OF THE DEAD. 

whole city was filled with the fumes of carbolic acid and 
lime in solution. 

This is general order No. 9, issued by Brigadier Gen- 
eral Thomas Scurry, commanding the city forces: 

"Guards, foreman of gangs, and working parties or 
others acting under the authorities of this department 
will use diligence toward preventing any hardships on 
private individuals or impressing men for service. The 
conditions, however, are so critical, and it is so necessary 
that sanitary precautions be taken to preserve the lives 
and health of the people of this stricken city, that individ- 
ual interests must give way to the general good of all. 
If it is found feasible to secure volunteers, general im- 
pressment will be avoided, but, the medical fraternity 
being a unit in the opinion that further delay or procrasti- 
nation will bring pestilence to finish the dire work 
of the hurricane, the interests of no individual, 
firm, or corporation will for one instant be spared to se- 
cure volunteers for work, but, failing this, every able- 
bodied man is to be put to work to clear the wreckage, 
burn the hundreds of bodies under it, and save, if possible, 
the lives of those who yet remain. I trust this position 
may be thoroughly appreciated and understood, so that 
all people will govern themselves accordingly." 

BOY FLOATS MILES ON A TRUNK. 

The miracles of Galveston were many. Some of them 
will not be received with full credit by readers. In the 
infirmary at Houston was a boy whose name is Rutter. 
He was found on Monday morning lying behind a trunk 
on the land near the town of Hitchcock, which is twenty 
miles to the northward of Galv^eston. The boy was only 
12 years old. His story was that his father, mother, and 



DISPOSAL OF THE DEAD. 135 

two children remained in the house. There was a crash. 
The house went to pieces. The boy said he caught hold 
of a trunk when he found himself in the water and floated 
off with it. He was sure the others were drowned. He 
had no idea of where it took him, but when daylight came 
he was across the bay and out upon the still partially 
submerged mainland. 

ESCAPED IN BATHING SUITS. 

The wife of Manager Bergman of the Houston Opera 
House saw more of the storm than fell to the lot of most 
women who live to tell of it. She had been spending the 
heated term at a Rosenberg avenue cottage only a short 
distance from the beach. 

On Saturday morning the water had risen there three 
feet. Putting on a bathing suit, Mrs. Bergman went to 
the Olympia to talk over the long distance telephone with 
her husband in Houston. This was about 10 a. m. At 
the Olympia she had to wade waist deep in the water. At 
2 o'clock Mrs. Bergman became alarmed, and with her 
sister she left the summer cottage and started toward the 
more thickly settled part of the city. Neighbors laughed 
at the fear of the women. Out of a family of fifteen in 
the next house only three were saved. 

Mrs. Bergman and her sisted waded and swam alter- 
nately several blocks until they reached the higher streets. 
Then they hired a negro with a dray and told him to take 
them to the telephone exchange. Within two blocks from 
where the start was made in this way the mule got into 
deep water and w^as drowned. The women reached the 
telephone building, but when the firemen began to bring 
in the dead bodies they left and went to Balton's livery 
stable. This was only 600 yards away, but Mrs. Bergman 
says it was the hardest part of the trip, with the air full 



136 DISPOSAL OF THE DEAD. 

of flying- bits of glass, slate, and wood. In the stable they 
remained until morning. 

When the sun had risen the water had so far receded 
that they went out to the site of their cottage. A hitch- 
ing post was all that served to locate the place. No houses 
were left standing for many blocks around. A dead baby 
lay in the yard. The two women returned down-town. 
Passing a store with plate glass windows and doors 
blown out, they went in and helped themselves to the 
black cloth from which they made the gowns they still 
wore when they reached Houston three days later. Dur- 
ing the storm they wore their bathing suits. 

STRANGE INCIDENTS OF THE FLOOD. 

Many instances of devotion of husband to wife, of wife 
to husband, of child to parent and parent to child could 
be mentioned. One poor woman with her child and her 
father was cast out into the raging waters. They were 
separated. Both were in drift and both believed they 
went out in the gulf and returned. The mother was 
finally cast upon the drift and there she was pounded by 
the waves and debris until she was pulled into a house 
against which the drift had lodged, and during all that 
frightful ride she held to her eight months' old boy and 
when she was on the drift pile she lay upon the infant 
and covered it with her body that it might escape the 
blows of the planks. She came out of the ordeal cut and 
maimed, but the infant had not a scratch. 

STATUES ON ALTAR NOT HARMED. 

St. Joseph's Catholic Church presents a strange con- 
trast, with the roof and rear wall back of the altar being 
carried away. The wall collapsed, but the altar was not 



DISPOSAL OF THE DEAD. 137 

damaged and the frail lifesize statues of St. Joseph and 
the Virgin on the altar were not harmed or moved. 

When their home went to pieces the members of the 
Stubbs family — husband, wife, and two children — 
climbed upon the roof of a house floating by. They felt 
tolerably secure. Without warning the roof parted in 
two pieces. Mr. and Mrs. Stubbs were separated. Each 
had a child. The parts of the raft went different ways in 
the darkness. One of the children fell off and disappeared. 
Not until some time Sunday was the family reunited. 
Even the child was saved, having caught a table and 
clung to it until it reached a place of safety. 

Another man took his wife from one house to another 
by swimming until he had occupied three. Each fell in its 
turn and then he took to the waves and they were sep- 
arated and each, as the persons above mentioned, believed 
they were carried to sea. After three hours in the water 
he heard her call and finally rescued her. 

THREW $10,000 W^ORTH OF DIAMONDS INTO THE 

WATER. 

Edward Zeigler, Thomas Farley and Alexander Mc- 
Carthy arrived at Mobile, Ala., Thursday evening from 
Galveston. They left Galveston that morning on the tug 
Robinson with 130 other refugees and were taken to 
Houston. Until they arrived at New Orleans they were 
clad in undergarments and were coatless. 

They escaped at 10:30 on Sunday morning from a house 
on the exposed beach by clinging to a log and floating 
to high ground. Zeigler was struck by floating wreckage, 
but was assisted by his companions to safety. An old 
negress, who gave the sleeping men warning, was 
drowned. 

Zeigler was naked and the other men were in their 



138 DISPOSAL OF THE DEAD. 

night garments when they reached the crowd gathered 
near the Tremont house, but their appearance was similar 
to that of hundreds, many women being rescued for whom 
clothing had to be at once obtained. At noon Sunday 
they had sufficient space to move around with comfort, 
although filled with anxiety and penned in on all sides 
by the rapidly rising water. Four hours later the few 
thoroughfares above water were congested with crowds 
of hysterical women, crying children and frantic men. 

The separation of families produced pathetic scenes 
when mothers mourned their offspring and men lamented 
the loss of all dear to them. There was no confusion, only 
a clinging closer together without discrimination of class 
or sex as the waters advanced foot by foot. 

At dark the misery deepened and the women occupied 
the hotel and approaches, the highest point in the city, 
and the water continuing to advance, buildings and stores 
were thrown wide open to provide refuge in the upper 
stories. The men gave the better positions to the women. 

As midnight approached conditions became worse; 
several women became demented and one woman, a mem- 
ber of the demi-monde, threw |10,000 worth of diamonds 
into the flood. 

In the hotel the women kissed each other and said good- 
by. They prayed and sang hymns in turn. With each 
announcement that the waters were rising many men 
and women gave up to the terrible mental strain and 
fainted. 

The survivors paid a high tribute to the bravery in the 
face of death of the women of Galveston, and stated that, 
although abject melancholy had fallen over all, that the 
spirit of fortitude displayed by the women nerved the 
men. The horrors of that night were equaled on the suc- 
ceeding days as the water receded. 



DISPOSAL OF THE DEAD. 139 

DARED EVERYTHING FOR WIFE AND SON. 

Of all the heroism and dogged tenacity of purpose 
noted in connection with the Galveston storm none was 
greater than that of W. L. Love of Houston. Mr. Love 
was a compositor on the Houston Post, and his wife and 
little son were visiting Mrs. Love's mother in Galveston 
when the storm struck the city. 

Early Sunday morning when the first news of the Gal- 
veston disaster began to drift in, Mr. Love announced to 
the foreman of the composing-room, under whom he was 
working, that he intended starting immediately for Gal- 
veston. 

He went to one of the depots and fortunately found a 
train leaving toward Galveston. He boarded it, but the 
train was forced to stop eight miles before it reached 
Galveston Bay. He Avalked eight miles, arriving at the 
bay in about two hours. There was no boat in sight, not 
even a skiff or canoe. 

He found a large cypress railroad-tie near the water's 
edge and, procuring a coal hook from a locomotive that 
had blown from the track, he got astride the tie after 
having placed it in the water, and set out on a difficult 
and perilous journey across the three miles of salt water. 
Thus he labored for six trying hours, the sun beating 
down on him and with his body half submerged in the 
brine of the bay. 

At last the goal was reached and he pulled himself 
out of the v/ater and stepped on the once fair island. 

After having passed on his w^ay more than a hundred 
decaying bodies of the storm victims, the heroic 3'Oung 
man set about finding his wife and little boy. This he did 



140 DISPOSAL OF THE DEAD. , 

after a lengthy search. His wife had lost her mother, 
father, brothers and sisters, numbering eight in all. 

The little boy had been utterly stripped of his clothing 
by the wind and both he and his mother had an experi- 
ence that rarely comes to a mother and son. 

PITIFUL TALES OF SOME OF THE SURVIVORS. 

The story of Thomas Klee was indeed most pitiful. 
Klee lived near Eleventh and N streets. When the storm 
burst he was alone in his home with his two infant chil- 
dren. He seized one under each arm and rushed from 
the frail structure in time to cheat death among the fall- 
ing timbers of his home. 

Once in the open, with his babies under his arms, he 
was swept into the bay among hundreds of others. He 
held to his precious burden and by skillful maneuvering 
managed to get close to a tree which was sweeping along 
with the tide. He saw a haven in the branches of the 
tree and raised his two-year-old daughter to place her in 
the branches. As he did so the little one was torn from 
his arm and carried away to her death. 

The awful blow stunned but did not render him sense- 
less. Klee retained his hold on the other child, aged four 
years, and was whirled along among the dying and dead 
victims of the storm's fury, hoping to effect a landing 
somewhere. 

An hour in the water "brought the desired end. He was 
thrown ashore, with wreckage and corpses, and, 
stumbling to a footing, lifted his son to a level with his 
face. The boy was dead. 

Klee remembered nothing until Thursday night, when 
he was put ashore in Texas City. He had a slight recol- 
lection of helping to bury dead, clear away debris and 



DISPOSAL OF THE DEAD. 141 

obey the command of soldiers. His braiu, however, did 
not execute its functions until Friday morning. 

George Boyer's experience was a sad one. He was 
thrown into the rushing waters, and while being carried 
with frightful velocity down the bay saw the dead face 
of his wife in the branches of a tree. The woman had 
been wedged firmly between two branches. 

Margaret Lees' life was saved at the expense of her 
brother's. The woman was in her Twelfth street home 
when the hurricane struck. Her brother seized her and 
guided her to St. Mary's Universitj^ a short distance 
away. He returned to search for his son, and was killed 
by a falling house. 

HORRIBLE CONDITION OF THE CITY AFTER THE 

FLOOD. 

I. J. Jones, sent to Galveston by Governor Sayers, of 
Texas, the day after the storm to investigate the con- 
dition of the Texas State quarantine there, reported to 
the Governor at Austin on September 14, said, among 
other things, in his report: 

"The sanitary condition of the city is very bad. Large 
quantities of lime have been ordered to the place, but I 
doubt if any one will be found to unload it from the ves- 
sels and attend its systematic distribution when it arrives. 
The stench is almost unbearable. It arises from piles of 
debris containing the carcasses of human beings and ani- 
mals. These carcasses are being burned whenever it can 
be done with safety, but little of the wreckage can be 
destroyed. There is no water protection, and should a 
fire break out the destruction of the city would soon be 
complete. When searching parties come across a human 
body it is taken into an open space and wreckage piled 



142 DISPOSAL OF THE DEAD. 

over it. This is set on fire and tlie body slowly consumed. 
The odor of the burning bodies is horrible. 

"The chairman of the finance relief committee at Gal- 
veston wanted me to make the announcement that the 
city wants all the skilled mechanics and contractors with 
their tools that can be brought to Galveston. There is 
some repair work now going on, but it is impossible to 
find men who will work at that kind of business. Those 
now in Galveston not engaged in the relief work have 
their own private business to look after and mechanics 
are not to be had. All mechanics will be paid regular 
wages and will be given employment by private parties 
who desire to get their wrecked homes in a habitable con- 
dition as rapidly as possible. There are many houses 
which have only the roof gone. These residences are 
finely furnished, and it is desired that the necessary re- 
pairs be made quickly. 

"The relief work is fairly well organized. Nothing has 
been accomplished except the distribution of food among 
the needy. About one-half of the city is totally wrecked 
and many people are living in houses that are badly 
wrecked. The destitute are being removed from the city 
as rapidly as possible. It will take three or four days yet 
before all who want to go have been removed from the 
island and city. A remarkably large number of horses 
survived the storm, but there is no feed for them and 
many of them will soon die of starvation. 

"I am thoroughly satisfied after spending two days in 
Galveston that the estimate of 5,000 dead is too conserva- 
tive. It will exceed that number. Nobody can ever esti- 
mate or will ever know within 1,000 of how many lives 
were lost. In the city the dead bodies are being got rid of 
in whatever manner possible. They are burying the dead 
found on mainland. At one place 250 were found and 



DISPOSAL OF THE DEAD. 143 

buried on Wednesday. There must be hundreds of dead 
bodies back on the prairies that have not been found. It 
is impracticable to make a search. Bodies have been 
found as far back as seven miles from the mainland shore. 
It would take an army to search that territory on the 
mainland. 

''The waters of the gulf and bay are still full of dead 
bodies and they are being constantly cast upon the beach. 
On my trip to and from the quarantine I passed a proces- 
sion of bodies going seaward. I counted fourteen of them 
on my trip in from the station, and this procession is kept 
up day and night. The captain of a ship who had just 
reached quarantine informed me that he began to meet 
floating bodies fifty miles from port. 

"As an illustration of how high the water got in the 
gulf, a vessel which was in port tried to get into the open 
sea when the storm came on. It got out some distance 
and had to put back. It was dark and all the landmarks 
had been obliterated. Tl^e course of the vessel could not 
be determined and she V as being furiously driven in to- 
ward the island by the / md. Before her course could be 
established she had ac/ ally run over the top of the north 
jetty. As the vessel draws twenty-five feet of water, some 
idea can be obtained as to the height of the water in the 
gulf." 

THRILLING EXPERIENCE OP A DALLAS GIRL. 

One of the most thrilling descriptions of personal ex- 
perience with the fearful flood ever written was that of 
Miss Maud Hall, of Dallas, Tex,, who was spending her 
school vacation with friends at Galveston. She wrote an 
account of her adventures to her parents, Mr. and Mrs. 
Emory Hall: 



144 DISPOSAL OF THE DEAD. 

"Dear Papa and Mamma: I suppose before this you 
will have received my telegram and know I am safe. This 
has been a terrible experience. I hope I will be spared 
any more such. I am just a nervous wreck — fever blisters 
over my mouth, eyes with hollows under them, and shak- 
ing all over. When I close my eyes I can't see anything 
but piles of naked dead and wild-eyed men and women. 

I suppose I had better begin at the beginning, but I don't 
know if I can write with any sense. Saturday at about 

II o'clock it began raining, and the wind rose a little. 
Sidney Spann and two young lady boarders could not 
get home to dinner. After the dinner the men left and 
we sat around in dressing sacks watching the storm. All 
at once Birdie Duff (Mrs. Spann's married daughter) said: 
'Look at the water in the street; it must be the gulf.' 

"There was water from curb to curb. It rose rapidly as 
we watched it, and Mrs. Spann sent us all to dress. It 
rose to the sidewalk, and the men began to come home. 
The wind and rain rose to a furious whirlwind and all the 
time the water crept higher and higher. We all crowded 
into the hall of the house — a big, two-story one — and it 
rocked like a cradle. About 6 o'clock the roof was gone, 
all the blinds torn off, and all the windows blown in. 
Glass was flying in all directions and the water had risen 
to a level with the gallery. 

"Then the men told us we would have to leave and go 
to a house across the street at the end of the block, a big 
one. Mrs. Spann was wild about her daughter Sidney, 
who had not been home, and the telephone wires were 
down. The men told us we m.ust not wear heavy skirts, 
and could only take a few things in a little bundle. I took 
my watch and ticket and what money I had and pinned 
them in my corset; took off everything from my waist 
down but an underskirt and my linen skirt; no shoes and 



DISPOSAL OF THE DEAD. 145 

stockings. I put what clothes I could find in my trunk 
and locked it. Tell mamma the last thing I put in was 
her gray skirt, for I thought it might be injured. 

"It took two men to each woman to get hex" across the 
street and down to the end of the block. Trees thicker 
than any in our yard were whirled down the street ; pine 
logs, boxes and driftwood of all sorts swept past, and the 
water looked like a whirlpool. Birdie and I went across 
on the second trip. The wind and rain cut like a knife 
and the water was icy cold. It was like going down into 
the grave, and I was never so near death, unless it was 
once before, since I have been here. I came near drown- 
ing with another girl. It was dark by this time, and the 
men put their arms around us and down into the water 
we went. Birdie was crying about her baby that she had 
to leave behind until the next trip, and I was begging 
Mr. Mitchell and the other man not to turn me loose. 

"Mrs. Spann came last. The water was over her chin. 
It was up to my shoulders when I went over. One man 
brought a bundle of clothing, such as he could find for 
us to put on, wrapped up in his mackintosh. He had to 
swim over. I spent the night, such a horrible one, wet 
from shoulder to my waist and from my knees down, and 
barefoot. Nobody had any shoes and stockings. Mrs. 
Spann did not have anything but a thin lawn dress and 
blanket wrapped around her from her waist down. Nellie 
had a lawn wrapper and blanket, and Fannie had a skirt 
and winter jacket. Mr. Mitchell had a pair of trousers 
and a light shirt and was barefooted. The house was 
packed with people just like us. 

"The house had a basement and was of stone. The win- 
dows were blown out, and it rocked from top to bottom, 
and the water came into the first floor. Of course no one 
slept. About 3 o'clock in the morning the wind had 



146 DISPOSAL OF THE DEAD. 

changed and blew the water back to the gulf, and as we 
stood at the windows watching it fall we saw two men 
and two girls wading the street and heard Sidney calling 
for her mother. She and the young lady with her spent 
the night crowded into an office with nine men in total 
darkness, sitting on boxes, with their feet up off the floor. 
It was an immense brick building four stories high. They 
were on the second floor. The roof and one story was 
blown away and the water came up to the second floor. 
It was down toward the wharf. 

"As soon as we could we waded home. Such a home! 
The water had risen three feet in the house and the roof 
being gone the rain poured in. I had not a dry rag but 
a dirty skirt which was hanging in the wardrobe and an 
underskirt with it. My trunk had floated and everything 
in it was stained except the gray skirt. We had not had 
anything to eat since noon the day before, and we lived on 
whisky. Every time the men would see us they would 
poke a bottle of whisky at us, and make us drink some. 
All we had all day Sunday was crackers at 50 cents a 
small box and whisky. 

"We were all so weak we knew we could not get any 
more, so Miss Decker and I went down about 10 o'clock. 
It was awful. Dead animals everywhere, and the streets 
filled with fallen telegraph poles and brick stores blown 
over. Hundreds of women and children and men sitting 
on steps crying for lost ones, and half of them, nearly, 
injured. Wild-eyed, ghastly-looking men hurried by and 
told of whole families killed. 

"I could not stand any more and made them bring nje 
home, and fell on the bed with hysterics. They poured 
whisky down me, but the only effect it had was to make 
my head ache worse. I had about got straightened out 
when a girl and a woman came to the house — relatives 



DISPOSAL OF THE DEAD. 147 

of Mrs. Spann — who had lost their mother and friends 
and house, and all they had. They had hysterics, and 
everybody cried, and I had another spell. All day wagon 
after wagon passed filled with dead — most of them with- 
out a thing on them — and men with stretchers with dead 
bodies with just a sheet thrown over them, some of them 
little children. 

"We waited, every minute expecting to have the two 
bodies brought here. But they had not been found up 
to now, and all hope is lost. There is a little boy in the 
house that spent the night in the water clinging to a log, 
and his father and mother and four sisters were drowned. 
He is all alone. Last night Mr. Mitchell took Miss Decker 
and I to another boarding house to find a dry bed. We 
slept on a folding bed, with nothing under us but a rug 
and sheet, and I had to borrow something dry to sleep in. 
The husband of the lady who lost her mother has just 
come from Houston. He walked and swam all the way. 
He is nearly wild, and she is just screaming. I cannot 
write any more. Am coming home soon as I can." 

SAVED AS BY A MIRACLE. 

The Stubbs family, consisting of father, mother and 
two children, was in its home when it collapsed. They 
found refuge on a floating roof. This parted and father 
and one child were swept in one direction, while the 
mother and the other child drifted in another. One of the 
children was washed off, but Sunday evening all four were 
reunited. 

Mrs. P. Watkins became a raving maniac as the resu^ ': 
of her experiences. With her two children and \ j 
mother she was drifting on a roof, when her mother and 
one child were swept away. Mrs. Watkins mistakes at- 



148 DISPOSAL OF THE DEAD. 

tendants in the hospital for her lost relatives and clutches 
wildly for them. 

Harry Steele, a cotton man, and his wife sought safety 
in three successive houses which were demolished. They 
eventually climbed on a floating door and w^ere saved. 

W. R. Jones, with fifteen other men, finding the build- 
ing they were in about to fall, made their way to the 
water tower and, clasping hands, encircled the standpipe 
to keep from being washed or blown away. 

Mrs. Chapman Bailey, wife of the southern manager of 
the Galveston Wharf Company, and Miss Blanche Ken- 
nedy floated in the waters ten to twenty feet deep all 
night and day by catching wreckage. Finally they got 
into a wooden bath tub and were driven into the gulf 
overnight. The incoming tide drove them back to Gal- 
veston and they were rescued the next day. They were 
fearfully bruised. All their relatives were drowned. 

A pathetic incident in the search for the dead occurred 
Friday. A squad of men discovered in a wrecked build- 
ing five bodies. Among these bodies was one which a 
member of the burial party recognized as his own brother. 
The bodies were all in an advanced state of decomposi- 
tion. They were removed and a funeral pyre was built, 
at which the brother assisted and, with Spartan-like firm- 
ness, stood by and saw the bodies of the dead reduced to 
ashes. 

On Monday a brakeman of the Galveston, Houston and 
Northern left Virginia Point and started to walk toward 
Texas City. He found a little child, which he picked up 
and carried for miles. On his way he discovered the bodies 
of nine women. These he covered with grass to protect 
them from the vultures until some arrangements could 
bf' made for their interment. 



CHAPTER VIi; 

Lives Lost and Property Damage Sustained Outside of Galyeston-One 
Thousand Victims and Millions of Yalue in Crops Swept Away— Esti- 
mates Made. 

GALVESTON'S property loss by the hurricane was hard- 
ly less than |20,000,000; outside of that city, in Houston 
and other points in Central and Southern Texas, together 
with the agricultural and stock-raising districts, the prop- 
erty damage was nearly half that amount, or in the neigh- 
borhood of 110,000,000. 

Probably seventy-five villages and towns were swept by 
the storm, and in most of these places there was loss of 

life. 

It was reliably estimated from reports received at Aus- 
tin, the capital city of Texas, from these places that the 
loss of life, exclusive of the death list of Galveston Island 
and City of Galveston, would aggregate 1,000 people. In 
many towns the percentage of killed or drowned exceeded 
that in the City of Galveston. Several towns were swept 
completely ou+ of existence. 

The scene of desolation in the devastated district was 
terrible to witness. The storm was over 200 miles wide 
and extended as far inland as Temple, a distance of over 
200 miles from the gulf. The cotton crop in the lower 
counties was completely ruined. The same was true of 
the rice crop. The distress was keenly felt by the planters 
and small farmers throughout the storm-swept region. 

In Houston the damage was not figured at over $400,- 
,00; at Alvin, $200,000, the town being virtually de- 
stroyed and 6,000 people in that section deprived not only 
of shelter and food for the time being but all prospect 
for crops in the year to come. 

149 



150 DAMAGE OUTSIDE OF GALVESTON. 

On the 15th of September, R. W. King sent out the 
following statement and appeal from Houston after a 
thorough investigation of the situation in and around 
Alvin: 

"I arrived in Alvin from Dallas and was astonished and 
bewildered by the sight of devastation on every side. 
Ninety-five per cent of the houses in this vicinity are in 
ruins, leaving G,000 people without adequate shelter and 
destitute of the necessaries of life, and with no means 
whatever to procure them. Everything in the way of 
crops is destroyed, and unless there is speedy relief there 
will be exceedingly great suffering. 

"The people need and must have assistance. Need 
money to rebuild their homes and buy stock and imple- 
ments. They need food — flour, bacon, corn. They must 
have seeds for their gardens so as to be able to do some- 
thing for themselves very soon. Clothing is badly needed. 
Hundreds of women and children are without a change 
and are already suffering. Some better idea may be had 
of the distress when it is known that box cars are being 
improvised as houses and hay as bedding. Only fourteen 
houses in the Town of Alvin are standing, and they are 
badly damaged." 

. The damage at Hitchcock was not less than $100,000, 
but the new^s from there was disheartening. A bulletin 
from a reliable source, dated September 15, said: 

"Country districts are strewn with corpses. The prai- 
ries around Hitchcock are dotted with the bodies of the 
dead. Scores are unburied, as the bodies are too badly 
decomposed to handle and the water too deep to admit 
of burial. 

"A pestilence is feared from the decomposing animal 
matter lying everywhere. The stench is something aw- 
ful. Disinfecting material is badly needed." 



DAMAGE OUTSIDE OF GALVESTON. 151 

Other outside losses were: 

Property. Property. 

Richmond | 75,000 Belleville | 5,000 

Fort Bend County. 300,000 Hempstead 25,000 

Wharton 30,000 Brookshire 35,000 

Wharton County.. 100,000 Waller County... . 100,000 

Colorado County . . 250,000 Areola 5,000 

Angleton 75,000 Sartartia 50,000 

Velasco 50,000 Dickinson 30,000 

Other points. Bra- Texas City 150,000 

zoria County. . . . 80,000 Columbia 10,000 

Sabine 50,000 Sandy Point 10,000 

Paton 10,000 Near Brazoria (con- 
Rollover 10,000 victs killed) 35,000 

Winnie 10,000 Other points 100,000 

Damage to railroads outside of Galveston, |500,000. 

Damage to telegraph and telephone wires outside of 
Galveston, |50,000. 

Damage to cotton crop, estimated on average crop of 
counties affected, 50,000 bales, at |60 a bale, $3,000,000. 

Damage to stock was great, thousands of horses and 
cattle having perished during the storm. 

In Brazoria, and other counties of that section there was 
hardly a plantation building left standing. All fences 
were also gone and the devastation was complete. Many 
large and expensive sugar refineries were wrecked. The 
negro cabins were blown down and many negroes killed. 
On one plantation, a short distance from the ill-fated 
Town of Angleton, three families of negroes were killed. 

The villages of Needville and Basley in Fort Bend 
county were completely destroyed over twenty people 
were killed, most of the bodies having been recovered. 



152 DAMAGE OUTSIDE OF GALVESTON. 

Every house in that part of the country was destroyed and 
there was great suffering among the homeless people 

There was much destitution among the people of Rich- 
mond in the same county. Richmond was one of the most 
prosperous towns in south Texas. It was wholly de- 
stroyed and the homeless ones were without shelter. 
Their food supplies were provided by their more fortu- 
nate neighbors until other assistance could be had. 

The State authorities heard from the Sartaria planta- 
tion, where several hundred State convicts were em- 
ployed. Every building on the plantation was blown 
down and the loss to property aggregated |35,000. Fif- 
teen convicts were caught under the timbers of a falling 
building and all killed. Over a score of others were in- 
jured. In addition to the loss on buildings the entire cane 
crop was destroyed on this as well as other plantations 
in that section. 

Seven people were killed in the Town of Angleton, 
which was almost completely destroyed. In the neigh- 
borhood of Angleton five more persons were killed and 
their bodies have been recovered. The loss of life in that 
immediate section far exceeded the estimates given in 
the earlier reports. 

The search for victims of the flood at Seabrook resulted 
in fifty bodies being recovered. Seabrook was a favorite 
summer resort with many Texas people, and its hotels 
were filled with guests. Many were out on pleasure 
jaunts when the storm came upon them. There were 
many guests in the private houses which were swept 
away. 

The casualties at Texas City were five. 

Velasco, situated near the mouth of the Brazos river, 
asked for help. Over one-half of the town was destroyed 



DAMAGE OUTSIDE OF GALVESTON. 153 

and eleven people lost their lives. Reports from the ad- 
jacent country showed that many negroes were killed. 

Eleven negro convicts employed on a plantation in 
Matagorda county were killed by the collapse of a build- 
ing in which they had sought refuge from the storm. 

The Town of Matagorda, situated on the coast, was in 
the brunt of the storm. Several people were killed in the 
Towns of Caney and Elliott, in the same county. The 
new buildings on the Clemmons convict farm, owned and 
operated by the State, were destroyed and several con- 
victs injured. The crops were also ruined. 

Over fifty negroes were killed in Wharton county, ten 
being killed on one plantation near the Town of Wharton. 

Bay City suffered a loss of nearly all of its buildings 
and three were killed there. There were many homeless 
people in Missouri City, every house in the town but two 
being destroyed. The destitute people were living out 
of doors and camping on the wet ground. 

Outside of the cities of Galveston and Houston, the 
greatest suffering was between Houston and East Lake, 
inland, and on the coast to the Brazos river. There was 
no damage at Corpus Christi, Rockport, or in that im- 
mediate section of the coast. 

People in immediate need of relief were those of the 
Colorado and Brazos river bottoms. The planters in that 
section had everything swept away last year, and the 
flood this year devastated their crops, leaving the ten- 
ants in a state bordering on starvation. An enormous 
acreage was planted in rice and the crop was ready for 
harvesting when the furious winds laid everything low. 

At Wharton, Sugarland, Quintana, Waller, Prairie 
View and many other smaller places barely a house was 
left standing. Many of the farm hands had been brought 
into that section to assist at cotton picking and other 



154 DAMAGE OUTSIDE OF GALVESTON. 

farming. The people were huddled in small cabins when 
the first signs of a. storm began brewing. But few es- 
caped. Their clothing and everything was gone. They 
were absolutely devoid of even the necessities with which 
to sustain life. 

To begin over again the owners of plantations had to 
rebuild houses, purchase new machinery and new draft 
animals. The loss of horses and mules in the stricken 
district was a severe blow. Live stock interests were also 
greatly harmed. 

In the opinion of railway men several years must 
elapse before the farming districts can be restored to 
their former conditions. The advanced prices of build- 
ing; material was a hard blow for the smaller farmers, 
who in most instances were owners of farms. 

Appeals for relief were received from everywhere in the 
storm center. The season had given promise of produc- 
ing the best harvest in the previous fifteen years. 

Five Houston people were drowned at Morgan's Point 
— Mrs. C. H. Lucy and her two children, Haven Mcll- 
henny and the five-year-old son of David Eice. Mr. 
Michael Mcllhenny was rescued alive, exhausted and in 
a state of terrible nervousness. 

Mcllhenny said the water came up so rapidly that he 
and his family sought safety upon the roof. He had 
Haven in his arms and the other children were strapped 
together. A heavy piece of timber struck Haven, killing 
him. Mcllhenny then took up young Rice, and while he 
had him in his arms he was twice washed off the roof and 
in this way young Eice was drowned. 

Mrs. Lucy's oldest child was next killed by a piece of 
timber and the younger one was drowned, and next Mrs. 
Lucy was washed off and drowned, thus leaving Mr. cind 
Mrs. Mcllhenny the only occupants on the roof. Finally 



DAMAGE OUTSIDE OF GALVESTON. 155 

the roof blew off the house and as it fell into the water it 
was broken in twain, Mrs. Mellhenny remaining on one 
half and Mellhenny on the other. The portion of the roofj 
to which Mrs. Mellhenny clung turned over and this was 
the last seen of her. Mellhenny held to his side of the 
roof so distracted in mind as to care little where or how 
it drifted. He finally landed about 2 p. m. Sunday. 

At Surfside, a summer resort opposite Quintana, there 
were seventy-five persons in the hotel. The water was 
about it, and the danger was from the heavy logs float- 
ing from above. Only a few men worked in the village, 
so a number of women went into the water to their waists 
and assisted in keeping the logs away from the hotel, and 
no one was lost. 

At Belleville every house in the place was damaged, 
and several were demolished, including two churches. 
One girl was killed near there. Not a house was left at 
Patterson in a habitable condition. 

Two boarding cars were blown out on the main line 
and whirled along by the wind sixteen miles to Sandy 
Point, where they collided with a number of other board- 
ing cars, killing two and injuring thirteen occupants. 

A dead child, the destruction of all houses except one 
and the destitution of some fifty families is the record of 
the work of the hurricane at Arcadia. From fifty other 
towns came reports that buildings were wrecked or de- 
molished. Most of them reported several dead and in- 
jured. 

J. D. Dillon, commercial agent of the Santa Fe Railway 
Company, made a trip over the line of his road from 
Hitchcock to Virginia Point on foot, September 13, and 
gave a graphic account of his journey, which was made 
under many difficulties. 

"Twelve miles of track and bridges are gone south of 



156 DAMAGE OUTSIDE OF GALVESTON. 

Hitchcock," said he. "I walked, waded and swam from 
Hitchcock to Virginia Point, and nothing could be seen 
in all of that country but death and desolation. The 
prairies are covered with water, and I do not think I 
exaggerate when I say that not less than 5,000 horses and 
cattle are to be seen along the line of the tracks south of 
Hitchcock. 

"The little towns along the railway are all swept away, 
and the sight is the most terrible that I have ever wit- 
nessed. Ys^hen I reached a point about two miles north 
of Virginia Point I saw some bodies floating on the prai- 
rie, and from that point until Virginia Point was reached 
dead bodies could be seen from the railroad track, floating 
about the iDrairie. 

"At Virginia Point nothing is left. About 100 cars of 
loaded merchandise that reached Virginia Point on the 
International and Great Northern and the Missouri, Kan- 
sas and Texas on the night of the storm are scattered over 
the prairie, and their contents will no doubt prove a total 
loss." 

On Friday, September 14, from early morning until far 
into the afternoon Governor Sayers was in conference 
with relief committees from various points along the 
storm-swept coast. Among the first committees to arrive 
was one from Galveston. These men consulted at length 
with the Governor, and as a result of this conference it 
was decided that the State Adjutant General, General 
Scurry, should be left in command of the city, which was 
to be considered under military rule, and that he was to 
have the exclusive control not only of the patrolling of 
the city, but of the sanitary forces engaged in cleaning 
the city. 

It was decided also that instead of looking to the labor- 
ing people of Galveston for work in the emergency an 



DAMAGE OUTSIDE OF GALVESTON. 157 

importation of outside laborers to the number of 2,000 
should be made to conduct the sanitary work while the 
people of Galveston were given an opportunity of looking 
after their own losses and rebuilding their own property 
without giving any time to the city at large. 

It was believed that with the work of these 2,000 out- 
side laborers it would require about four weeks to clean 
the city of debris, and in the meantime the citizens could 
be working on their own property and repairing damage 
there. 

Another relief committee from Velasco reported that 
2,000 persons were in destitute circumstances, without 
food, clothing, or homes. Crops had been totally de- 
stroyed, all farming implements were washed away, and 
the people had nothing at hand with which to work the 
fields. 

A relief committee from the Columbia precinct reported 
2,500 destitute. Other sections sent in committees during 
the day, and as a result of all Governor Sayers ordered 
posthaste shipments of supplies. 

The text of the message of sympathy received by Presi- 
dent McKinley from the Emperor of Germany was as fol- 
lows: 

"Stettin, Sept. 13, 1900.— President of the United 
States of America, Washington: — I wish to convey to 
your excellency the expression of my deep-felt sympathy 
with the misfortune that has befallen the town and har- 
bor of Galveston and many other ports of the coast, and 
I mourn with you and the people of the United States 
over the terrible loss of life and property caused by the 
hurricane, but the magnitude of the disaster is equaled 
by the indomitable spirit of the citizens of the new world, 
who, in their long and continued struggle with the ad- 



158 DAMAGE OUTSIDE OF GALVESTON. 

verse forces of nature, have proved themselves to be vic- 
torious. 

"I sincerely hope that Galveston will rise again to 
new prosperity. 

"WILLIAM, I. R." 

The President replied : 

"Executive Mansion, September 14, 1900. — His Im- 
perial and Royal Majesty Wilhelm II., Stettin, Germany: 
— Your majesty's, message of condolence and sympathy is 
very grateful to the American government and people, 
and in their name, as well as on behalf of the many thous- 
ands who have suffered bereavement and irreparable loss 
in the Galveston disaster, I thank you most earnestly. 

"WILLIAM McKINLEY." 



CHAPTER VIII. 

Business Resumed at Galveston in a Small Way on the Sixth Day after 
the Catastrophe— "Gfalveston Shall Rise Again" — How the City Looked 
On Saturday, One Week after the Flood. 

BY the time Friday — practically the sixth day after the 
flood, although the waters did not subside nor the wind 
go down until about 2 o'clock on Sunday morning — had 
arrived many of the business men of the stricken city had 
recovered their courage and two or three banks and a few 
business houses were opened, although most of the streets 
were still choked with debris and practically impassable. 
On every corner was this sign : 



CLEAN UP. 



Some women even ventured out shopping, picking their 
way over great masses of wreckage. Tremont street was 
by that time opened from the bay to the beach, and Me- 
chanic street, the Strand and Winnie and Church streets 
were being rapidly cleared. However, the stench from 
the putrefying bodies of the victims of the calamity still 
in the ruins of scores and hundreds of buildings was all 
but unbearable. 

"GALVESTON SHALL RISE AGAIN." 

"Galveston must rise again," said the Galveston News 
in an editorial on Thursday. 

"At the first meeting of Galveston citizens Sunday aft- 
ernoon after the great hurricane, for the purpose of bring- 

159 



160 BUSINESS RESUMED AT GALVESTON. 

ing order out of chaos, the only sentiment expressed," the 
editorial says, "was that Galveston had received an avi^ful 
blow. The loss of life and property is appalling — so great 
that it required several days to form anything like a cor- 
rect estimate. With sad and aching hearts, but v/ith 
resolute faces, the sentiment of the meeting was that out 
of the awful chaos of wrecked homes and wrecked busi- 
ness, Galveston must rise again. 

"The sentiment was not that of bury the dead and give 
up the ship; but, rather, bury the dead, succor the needy, 
appeal for aid from a charitable world, and then start 
resolutely to Avork to mend the broken chains. In many 
cases the work of upbuilding must begin over. In other 
cases the destruction is only partial. 

"The sentiment was, Galveston will, Galveston must, 
survive, and fulfill her glorious destiny. Galveston shall 
rise again. * * ♦ 

"If we have lost all else, we still have life and the fu- 
ture, and it is toward the future that we must devote the 
energies of our lives. We can never forget what we have 
suffered; we cannot forget the thousands of our friends 
and loved ones who found in the angry billows that de- 
stroyed them a final resting place. But tears and grief 
must not make us forget our present duties. The blight 
and ruin which have destroyed Galveston are not beyond 
repair; we must not for a moment think Galveston is to 
be abandoned because of one disaster, however horrible 
that disaster has been. 

"It is a time for courage of the highest order. It is a 
time when men and women show the stuff that is in them, 
and we can make no loftier acknowledgment of the mate- 
rial sympathy which the world is extending to us than 
to answer back that after we shall have buried our dead, 
relieved the sufferings of the sick and destitute, we will 



BUSINESS RESUMED AT GALVESTON. 161 

bravely undertake the vast work of restoration and re- 
cuperation which lies before us in a manner which shall 
convince the world that we have spirit to overcome mis- 
fortune and rebuild our homes. In this way we shall 
prove ourselves worthy of the boundless tenderness 
which is being showered upon us in the hour of desolation 
and sorrow." 

This sentiment voiced the feeling of the people of the 
prostrate city pretty accurately, for they had begun to 
look around them and make plans for rebuilding, al- 
though it was many days after that before the streets 
were cleaned and the ground was dry enough to begin 
work. 

THE SITUATION A WEEK AFTERWARDS. 

A newspaper correspondent who had unusual facilities 
for getting at the true state of affairs summed up the situ- 
ation on Saturday, September 15, just a week after the 
awful visitation, as follows: 

"The first week of Galveston's suffering has passed 
away, and the extent of the disaster which wind and flood 
brought to the city seems greater than it did even when 
the blow had just been struck. 

"That 5,000 or more of the 40,000 men, women and chil- 
dren who made up the population of the city seven days 
ago are dead is almost certain. And the money value of 
the damage to the property of the citizens is so great that 
no one can attempt to estimate it within |5,000,000 of the 
real amount. 

"In one thing the effects of the flood are irreparable. 
Water now covers 5,300,000 square feet of ground that 
was formerly a part of the city, but which now can never 
be reclaimed from the gulf. 



162 BUSINESS RESUMED AT GALVESTON. 

"A strip of land three miles long and from 350 to 400 
feet wide along tbe south side of the city, where the finest 
residences stood, is now covered by the waves even at \o^M 
tide. The Beach Hotel now has its foundations in the 
gulf, although before the hurricane it had a fine beach 
400 feet wide in front of it. This land is gone forever. 

"Like men stunned and dazed, the survivors of the flood 
have worked and struggled to bury their dead and to 
make the city habitable for the living, but it may be 
doubted whether they even yet realize to the full extent 
what they have lost, or guess the suffering that is in store 
for them when their moments of leisure come and they 
begin to miss their friends and loved ones who are dead. 

"It is certain now that, however much Galveston has 
suffered, the city will be rebuilt and be the scene of as 
great a business as before. But few of the men of the 
city can pay any attention yet to the work that is nec- 
essary for this restoration. To-day they are busy with 
the roughest work of cleaning the city, of clearing away 
the debris, of burying the bodies which still are being dis- 
covered under ruins each day and of providing for their 
simplest necessities. 

"The woman who a few days ago was the mistress of a 
splendid mansion, with every want provided for, maj 
now be seen half-clad making her way through the streets 
in search of a little food, and esteeming herself fortunate 
if her family is still intact to gather in the wreckage of 
the former home. The man who a few days ago was the 
owner of a great business and the master of many ser- 
vants may to-day be seen working in the trying tasks of" 
removing wreckage and hauling away to burial the de- 
cayed and unrecognizable bodies of the dead, under the 
direction of armed soldiers and deputy sheriffs, who are 
there to see that the work is not slighted. 



BUSINESS RESUMED AT GALVESTON. 163 

"And around every one is ruin. The broken and shat- 
tered houses, the scattered articles of furniture, above all 
the burning funeral pyres on which the bodies of many of 
the dead are being consumed, make the city a place of 
horror even to those whose personal wants are best pro- 
vided for. 

"The peril from the wind and waves was followed for 
those who survived by a peril of hunger and a peril of 
disease. There came also a peril to life and property 
from the great horde of robbers and inhuman outlaws 
who were attracted by the helpless condition of the city 
to seek their prey. 

"The splendid response of the country to Galveston's 
appeal for help has removed all danger of further suffer- 
ing from hunger, and the prompt action of Governor 
Sayers, through Adjutant General Scurry, and of Mayor 
Jones and the citizens' relief committee have re-estab- 
lished order and made the horrible scenes of the stripping 
of corpses and the assaults on persons no longer possible. 
The city is still under martial law, and it will remain so, 
nominally at least, until normal conditions otherwise 
have been restored. 

"The danger of pestilence is still great, however, and 
indeed the fear that other thousands may fall victims to 
a scourge of disease is gaining in strength and leading to 
an exodus of all the women and children and of many 
of the men of the city, who are crowding the boats to get 
away to the mainland. 

"Added to the danger from the thousands of decora- 
posing bodies both of men and of beasts, which still lie 
under ruined houses and along the gulf shore, is the dan- 
ger from the unflushed sewers and closets in the city. 
Until yesterday it was practically impossible to flush the 
sewers in any part of the city on account of the lack of 



164 BUSINESS RESUMED AT GALVESTON. 

water, and although the condition is now much better 
there is much of evil still. 

"Fevers and other diseases which may be bred under 
these conditions will not show themselves for ten days 
or longer, at the earliest. Some of the physicians in the 
city have issued statements to-day calculated to calm the 
apprehensions of the citizens in this matter. Among 
them is Dr. W. H. Blount, state health officer, who says 
that there is no great danger. He refers to the cyclone of 
1867, which covered the city with slimy mud, and instead 
of breeding disease served practically to put an end to 
the yellow fever then prevalent. 

"The work of clearing away the debiis in the streets 
has been carried on with a fair degree of vigor, and it is 
expected that it will be pushed much faster from now on. 
The 2,000 laborers whom it has been decided to bring in 
from outside the city for the work will be able to take 
up the task without having to worry about the safety of 
the remnants of their own property which they may have 
left unprotected. 

"The most important need is, hov/ever, for money to 
pay the men. Adjutant General Scurry said to-day: *I 
have not a dollar to pay the men who are working in the 
streets all day long. I am not able to say to a single one 
of these men, "You shall be paid for your work." I have 
not the money to make good the promise and I hope and 
believe that the country will relieve the situation. 

" 'We must have this city cleaned up at any cost, and 
with the greatest speed possible. If it is not done with 
all haste, and at the same time done well, there may be 
a pestilence, and if it once breaks out here it will not be 
Galveston alone that will suffer. Such things spread, 
and it is not only for the sake of this city, but for others 



BUSINESS RESUMED AT GALVESTON. 1G5 

outside of this place that I urge that above all things we 
want money. 

" 'The nation has been most kind in its response to the 
appeal of Galveston, and from what I hear, food and dis- 
infectants sufficient for temporary purposes at least, are 
here or on the way. The country does not understand, it 
cannot understand, unless it visit Galveston, the awful 
destitution prevailing here. Of all the poor i)eople here, 
not one has anything. A majority of them could not fur- 
nish a single room in which to commence housekeeping 
even though they had the money to rebuild the room. 

" 'These people have absolutely nothing except what is 
given them by the relief committee. They are in a condi- 
tion of absolute want, they lack everything, and save for 
the splendid generosity of the nation they would be ut- 
terly without hope.' 

"The gangs of men in the streets are still finding every 
now and then badly decomposed bodies. Few of these 
relics of human life can be recognized, and many of them 
are naked and without anything about them which would 
lead to identification. They are disposed of as rapidly as 
possible, but the work is very offensive and the men en- 
gaged in it cannot endure it steadily for any great length 
of time. 

" 'Pull them out of the water as soon as seen and 
throw them into the flames as soon as taken from the 
water,' is the order, and it is effectually carried out. 

"The best work in this direction was done along the 
shore line of the gulf on the south side of the city. Dur- 
ing the day bodies were found at frequent intervals, and 
just at sunset seven were found in the ruins of one house. 
It is expected that more will be found to-morrow, as the 
work gang that to-day found seven bodies will clear up 



166 BUSINESS RESUMED AT GALVESTON. 

the debris where it is known that fifteen people were 
killed. 

"The soldiers from Dallas and Houston who have been 
here providing for order and helping in the work of clean- 
ing up the city have become exhausted and it has been 
necessary to relieve them. The Craddock Light Infantry 
of Terrell arrived to-day to take up the work. 

"The exodus to Houston and other neighboring cities 
is still going on. The sailboats across the bay are 
crowded to their fullest capacity, and they make as many 
round trips each day as they can." 

NOTHING LIKE IT IN THE HISTORY OF THE 
UNITED STATES. 

"No calamity in the history of the United States ap- 
proaches the horror of Galveston." Such was the dec- 
laration of Col. Walter Hudnall of the United States 
treasury department, Saturday, after filing a secret re- 
port to the government in which he outlined the damage 
sustained by the government and made confidential sug- 
gestions concerning the advisability of continuing the 
expenditures that have been made there annually. 

"Galveston needs no more physicians or nurses,'" he 
continued. "Those who would rush to the aid of the 
stricken island should send quicklime, chloride of lime, 
carbolic acid and other disinfectants and stay away them- 
selves. To-day Galveston is a gigantic funeral pyre. 
From the wreckage ascend numerous pillars of smoke 
and the air is filled with the sickening odor of burning 
human flesh. But above all, making one forget even the 
presence of the uncounted dead, is the stench of decaying 
coffee, rice and other vegetable products that lie swelling 



BUSINESS RESUMED AT GALVESTON. 167 

with the heat and putrefjing. Powerful chemicals and 
disinfectants are required to prevent what this is sure to 
produce — disease. 

"In the face of these .conditions Galveston is burying 
her dead, burning her wreckage, attempting to restore 
order and bring about a resumption of business. 

"No words of complaint are heard. The woe which has 
come upon the island city is too great for tears and the 
afflictions of individuals in the loss of dear ones is en- 
tirely forgotten in the heroic fight that is being made for 
self-preservation for the community. Women of wealth 
steal through the streets without clothing, save for a bit 
of torn and grimy cloth wrapped about them. Men of 
means are in the same sorry plight and go about their 
grewsome task of cleaning up in so stolid a manner that 
it is obvious that Galveston has not awakened to the full 
horror of the situation. There has not been time to 
think. 

"It is not uncommon to hear worn and haggard men 
refer to the loss of their families and their all with so 
little evidence of concern that it would attract wonder 
were not the senses of the visitor numbed by the terror of 
the situation. It is the reaction that is feared most by 
those who are leading the effort to make the city habit- 
able. When this work is completed and there is time to 
think a heartrending wail of woe will go up from the 
twenty-odd thousand mourning survivors and gloomy 
desperation is expected to succeed the energy that is now 
manifested. 

"The spirit of the people is aptly illustrated by Capt. 
John Delaney, chief customs inspector of the port. De- 
laney, 60 years of age, lost his entire family, wife, son 
and daughters. The bodies of the son and daughters were 
recovered, but no trace of Mrs. Delaney has been found. 



168 BUSINESS RESUMED AT GALVESTON. 

Whether her body was cast into the sea from one of the 
dread funeral barges or buried may never be known. 
Terrible as was the blow, Delaney was at his post the day 
following the disaster, attired in a pair of overalls, all 
that he managed to save. Yesterday a butcher, fortunate 
in saving a portion of two suits, loaned Delaney a pair of 
trousers. Clad in them he boarded a big German tramp 
steamer that arrived in port, inspected her and sent her 
back to New Orleans, as she was unable to discharge her 
cargo at Galveston." 

In his report to Washington Col. Hudnall placed the 
loss of life at from 6,500 to 8,000 and ridiculed the idea 
that any person could estimate the property loss at that 
time. He predicted that it would be impossible to esti- 
mate within 110,000,000 of the correct figures. His es- 
timate was based upon what was said to be better 
information than that of any other visitor in Galveston, 
as he had made a thorough canvass of the city on horse- 
back, visiting every locality where it was possible to 
travel, instructions from the treasury department being 
to thoroughly investigate in every detail. No one else 
had made such a canvass. 

Vice-President and General Manager Trice of the Inter- 
national and Great Northern railroad, after looking over 
the situation in Galveston, said the railroad losses would 
aggregate $5,000,000 or |6,000,000 in that city alone. 

At Galveston their wharves, warehouses, depots and 
tracks were ruined. The costly bridges which connected 
the island with the mainland were in ruins and must be 
entirely rebuilt. 

The International and Great Northern and Santa Fe 
had considerable track washed out, while the Galveston, 
Houston and Northern suffered heavily. 

All track between Seabrooke and Virginia Point, with 



BUSINESS RESUMED AT GALVESTON. 169 

all of the bridges, was washed away, and Section Pore- 
man Scanlan and all his crew at Nadeau had been lost. 

HOW THE INSURANCE COMPANIES FARED. 

Naturally the question of insurance carried on the lives 
and property of people of Galveston was one much dis- 
cussed after the first feeling of horror occasioned by the 
catastrophe had worn away, and the fact was developed 
that while the life insurance companies were somewhat 
badly hit — although in not so great a degree as would 
naturally be supposed when the heavy death list was 
taken into consideration — very little property insurance 
was carried by the business men and property owners of 
the desolated city. 

Although the loss of life was over 5,000, a large pro- 
portion of the victims was composed of women and chil- 
dren, a class which rarely if ever carries insurance; 
again, the majority of the men drowned and crushed were 
residents of the poorer districts of the town, the wealthier 
men having abandoned their homes at the first alarm and 
fled to the elevated places. These victims were caught in 
their houses, together with their families, and husbands, 
wives and children died together. 

As a matter of fact, the men who work for a living at 
trades and in the various branches of employment where 
skilled labor is not demanded, do not caiTy life insur- 
ance as a general thing, except in benevolent or fraternal 
societies of which they may be members, and this is the 
main reason why the "straight" life insurance companies, 
as they are called, did not suffer more than they did. 

One of the most prominent insurance managers in the 
United States said three days after the catastrophe: 

"Life insurance companies will feel the blow of the Gal- 



170 BUSINESS RESUMED AT G'ALVESTON. 

veston storm. How much insurance was carried by the 
victims of the storm is not known, bat it must have been 
great in the aggregate. The large proportion of women 
and children among the dead will lighten the burden, 
as they do not often carry insurance. 

"The rule requiring the body of the insured to be iden- 
tified will have to be waived, because of the number of 
bodies buried at sea and otherwise without identifica- 
tion. Unless the rigor of this rule is relaxed by the in- 
surers litigation will be boundless. 

"Practically no property insurance was carried at Gal- 
veston." 

Galveston and Houston representatives of the largest 
eastern insurance companies when seen concurred in the 
opinion that the insurance policies against storm losses 
carried by Galvestonians would not aggregate |10,000. 
They said there was absolutely no demand for such in- 
surance at Galveston. 

The head of one of the leading insurance firms in Gal- 
veston which represented many large eastern companies 
said: "We did not carry a dollar of storm insurance at 
Galveston, and while my information on that point is 
limited, I feel sure the storm insurance was vers^ small. 
We never had a request for storm insurance policies. If 
there had been any demand at Galveston for insurance 
of this kind we would have heard of it. 

"We held |50,000 storm insurance on two big oil mills 
at Houston and our loss will probably be |40,000 to 
$50,000 on these two structures. We held |25,000 storm 
insurance at Port Arthur and about |1,200 at Alvin. 
The insurance situation at Galveston is very quiet. There 
was no loss by fire, and I think the insurance against 
storms was trivial." 

More than 4,000 houses were destroyed; millions of do)- 



BUSINESS RESUMED AT GALVESTON. 171 

lars' worth of property in dry goods, grocery and other 
business houses — wholesale and retail — was ruined; 
there was hardly a house in the city which did not suffer 
damage, the total property losses aggregating about 
120,000,000; and yet, living in a section where storms 
were liable to occur at any time, little or no insurance 
was carried. 

The first message by wire was sent out of Galveston 
Thursday at 4:16 p. m. over the wire of the Western 
Union Company. The company laid a cable across the 
channel, and through it they transmitted the message. 
The cable was brought from Chicago on a i)assenger 
train. The Postal Telegraph Company had several wires 
in good working order by Saturday night, as also had the 
Western Union Company. 

The Mexican Cable Company secured both ends of its 
cable and established communication from Galveston 
with the outside world via the City of Mexico Friday 
eveninsr. 



CHAPTER IX. 

Galveston Nine Days After — Great Changes Apparent — Life in a Business 
Exliibited — Systematic Efforts to Obtain Names of the Dead. 

MONDAY, September 17, Galveston presented a far dif- 
ferent appearance than the Monday previous. Street cars 
were in operation in the business part of the city and the 
electric line and water service had been partly resumed. 
The progress made under the circumstances was little 
short of remarkable. 

It must not be understood by any means that the re- 
maining portion of the city had been put in anything like 
its normal condition, but so very great a change had been 
wrought, so much order and system prevailed where for- 
merly chaos reigned, that Galveston and the people who 
had been giving her such noble assistance had good rea- 
son to be satisfied with what had been accomplished in 
the face of such fearful odds. According to statements 
made by General Scurry, Mayor Jones, Alderman Perry 
and others, there was equally good reason to believe that 
the progress of the work from that time on would be 
even more satisfactory. 

On that morning the board of health began a systematic 
effort to obtain the names of the dead, so that the infor- 
mation could be used for legal purposes and for life insur- 
ance settlements. An agent was stationed at the head- 
quarters of the Central Kelief Committee to receive and 
file sworn statements in lieu of coroner's certificates. Per- 
sons who had left the city but were in possession of in- 
formation concerning the dead were notified to send 
sworn statements to Mr. Doherty. 

The steady stream of refugees from Galveston was kept 

172 



GREAT CHANGES APPARENT. 173 

up. There was not a departing train from across the bay 
which was not packed to its platforms. Refugees contin- 
ued to leave for many days thereafter. 

No sadder sight could be imagined than the picture pre- 
sented by a boat load of refugees, when the ropes were 
cast off and the craft swung out into the bay and away 
from the desolate city. There was not a face that was 
not turned toward the ruin. There was not an eye that 
was not moistened by tears. So great had been the rush 
to leave behind the scene of the storm that the Lawrence, 
the boat which connected with trains at Texas City, had 
not left her wharf a single day without denying passage 
to a portion of those who wanted to get away. 

The partings at the waterside were pitiful. Husbands 
came to the gangplank and kissed their weeping wives 
good-by, turning back to the hard work of reconstruction 
which confronted them, with breaking hearts. Scores of 
women, overcome at the last moment, were cared for by 
strange hands, while those who loved them, bound to Gal- 
veston by necessity, could do no more than watch from 
afar and pray. 

Instead of waiting until Galveston was reached to be- 
gin work, steps were taken to care for refugees at the bay 
terminal of the Galveston, Houston and Henderson Road, 
and during Saturday night and Sunday hundreds of hun- 
gry refugees werefed, while number-s of sick and wounded 
were cared for. 

There was plenty of work on hand for ten times the 
force of laborers employed. The area which had not yet 
been touched embraced four and a half miles of frontage 
on the beach and bay. 

There were enough provisions on hand ahead to feed 
everybody in Galveston for a week. There was a great 
deal of trouble in properly distributing supplies, the rush 



174 GREAT CHANGES APPARENT. 

at the depots being as great as at any time since they 
were opened. 

It was indeed a mercy that the weather since the storm 
had been clear and dry. Had it rained a single day the 
suffering would have been terrible, for there was not a 
whole roof in Galveston. 

There were about 200 soldiers in Galveston doing guard 
and police duty. The camp on the wharf, between the 
Galveston Eed Snapper Company and the foot of Tl-emont 
street had been put into shape and the soldiers comfort- 
ably housed. There were five militia commands — the 
Dallas rough riders. Captain Ormonde Paget, with forty- 
five men; the Houston Light Guards, Captain George Mc- 
Cormick, with forty-five men; the Galveston Sharpshoot- 
ers, Captain A. Bunschell, with thirty-five men; Battery 
D of Houston, Captain G. A. Adams, with fifteen men, and 
Troop A. Houston Cavalry, commanded by Lieutenant 
Breedlove, with twenty men. 

The fact that no money was available to pay the men 
who were engaged in cleaning the streets was a great 
detriment to preparing the way not only for rebuilding 
the city but in the efforts to prevent the spread of plague 
and pestilence. 

General Scurry, general in charge of the operations at 
Galveston, made the following statement on Sunday, Sep- 
tember 16: 

"I have not a dollar to pay the men who are working 
in the streets all day long. I am not able to say to a single 
one of them 'You'll be paid for your work.' I have not 
the money to make good the promise. I hope and believe 
that the countrj^ will understand the situation. We must 
have this city cleaned up at any cost and with the great- 
est speed possible. If it is not done with all haste, and at 



GREAT CHANGES APPARENT. 175 

the same time done well, there may be a pestilence, and if 
it breaks out here it will not be Galveston alone that will 
suffer. 

''Such things spread, and it is not only for the sake of 
this city, but for others outside that I urge that above all 
things we want money. The nation has been most kind in 
its response to appeals from Galveston. From what I 
hear food and disinfectants sufficient for temporary pur- 
poses at least are here or on the way. The country does 
not understand. It cannot understand unless it could 
visit Galveston, the situation prevailing here. 

"SCURRY, 
"Adjutant-General State of Texas." 

As to the probability of a pestilence, General Cham- 
bers McKibbin, U. S. A., commanding the Military De- 
partment of Texas, said: 

"I am personally in favor of burning as much rubbish 
as possible, and of burning it as quickly as permissible. 
I do not predict a pestilence, but I think the things are 
coming to that point where a pestilence may be possible 
unless prompt measures are taken, and there is nothing so 
effective as fire. Burn everything and burn it at once." 

All the churches in Galveston either being wrecked or 
ruined, with but one or two exceptions, divine services 
on Sunday, September 16, were in most cases suspended. 
Mass was celebrated at St. Mary's cathedral in the morn- 
ing and was largely attended. 

Father Kirwin preached an eloquent and feeling ser- 
mon, in which he spoke of the awful calamity that had 
befallen the people. After expressing sympathy with the 
afflicted and distressed he advised all to go to work in 



17 Q GREAT CHANGES APPARENT. 

burying the dead. The next day a census of the Catholic 
population was begun to ascertain the number of widows 
and orphans caused by the storm and the exact number 
of Catholics who perished. 

Bishop Gallagher, who had been active in his efforts 
to mitigate suffering at Galveston, received a telegram 
from Archbishop Corrigan of New York, stating the dio- 
cese of that city would see that all Catholic orphan chil- 
dren sent to his care were kindly provided for. 

Houston was the center of relief distribution, and also 
the key to Galveston. It was practically the only way in 
or out for weeks. Hundreds of refugees passed through 
every day. Houston was well filled with them, but the 
larger number went right through to points farther north. 
Free transportation was furnished to any point in Texas, 
provided they had relatives who would take care of them. 
Many of the refugees arrived at Houston scantily clothed 
and in a pitiful condition. 

"Vast as the work is, all are being provided for," said 
Edward Watkins, Chairman of the transportation di- 
vision of the Relief Committee. "We have not let any- 
body go through uncared for." 

Mere curiosity was at a discount here. People who had 
urgent business in Galveston found it hard to get permits 
to go there, and those who were simply curious could not 
get there at all. Camera fiends were absolutely barred. 
One man was shot for taking a picture of a nude woman 
on the beach, and three newspaper men who were taking 
views of the ruins were rounded up, their cameras 
smashed and themselves forced to go to work gathering 
up decomposed corpses. 

Even Houston was in a similar state of martial law. 
Guards surrounded the depot of the International & Great 
Northern, the only road running south, and would not 



GREAT CHANGES APPARENT. 177 

even allow curious crowds to gather to see the refugees 
come in. This was in enforcement of a proclamation is- 
sued by Mayor Brashear, copies of which, printed on large 
red cards, were posted conspicuously all over the Qitj. 

The catastrophe all but paralyzed shipping business 
in the storm-visited section. At Fort Worth all purchas- 
ing stopped. Cotton was just beginning to move, but it 
had to go by way of New Orleans, the additional freights 
eating up I'le apparent profit of the 1 cent a pound ad- 
vance in pri;:e. Had the storm struck a few weeks later 
the loss would have been greatly increased, as the cotton 
would then have been upon the wharves. 

Heavy financial losers were the fraternal societies. One 
known as the United Moderns, with headquarters at Den- 
ver, lost 100 out of a lodge of 500. Policies ranged from 
11,000 to 12,000. 



INSURANCE MATTERS CREATE A BIG BOTHER. 

One hundred and fifty odd million dollars represented 
the value of the life insurance policies carried by the old- 
line companies in the state of Texas at the time of the 
flood. It was estimated that |4,000,000 represented the 
life risks carried in Galveston by the regular companies, 
and that over |2,000,000 was carried by assessment and 
fraternal organizations. 

Insurance men said it was probable that of the persons 
killed in the recent disaster 900 were men, and that, ac- 
cording to statistics, half of them had life policies of an 
average value of |2,000. On this basis |900,000 approxi- 
mated the losses to be met in Galveston by the life insur- 
ance companies. Eighteen old-line companies and a great 
many assessment and fraternal companies divided the 



178 GREAT CHANGES APPARENT. 

losses, and no reputable organization was crippled 
thereby. 

Accurate figures of the losses were not made, but the 
above figures represented the calculations hastily made 
by George T. Dexter, superintendent of the domestic 
agencies of the Mutual Life Insurance Company of New 
York. In regard to this Mr. Dexter said: 

"The most striking feature of the insurance situation 
at Galveston is the difficulty that will arise when the ad- 
justment of claims is taken up. Hundreds of bodies have 
been buried without identification, hundreds more have 
been taken out into the gulf and many have been cre- 
mated. Whole families have been destroyed in many 
instances, and insurance papers have suffered in the gen- 
eral destruction of property. This state of affairs will 
make it difficult for the beneficiaries to establish their 
claims and will enable the organizations so disposed to 
escape payment. I have no doubt the level premium com- 
panies will adjust claims, in a large measure, on circum- 
stantial evidence. 

"Our agency property at San Antonio was destroyed, 
and we have no accurate reports of our Texas losses, so 
it is impossible to give other than general estimates of 
what they may be. The class of people insuring in the 
regular companies are in general surrounded by condi- 
tions that render them better risks in the event of such 
a calamity as this, but if my information is correct the 
better portion of the residence district suffered most, and 
we may hear of heavy losses. I think we carried between 
$300,000 and |400,000 insurance in Galveston. The in- 
surance business in that part of the south has been excep- 
tionally good of late because of the cotton values." 

H. H. Knowles, southern manager of the Equitable Life 
of New York, said: 



GREAT CHANGES APPARENT. 179 

"We have two |100,000 risks in Galveston, and we are 
hoping that they are not among the lost. Our reports from 
Texas are not in, but I should think that our company 
will be fortunate if it gets off with less than a loss of 
|100,000. I believe that the assessment and fraternal in- 
surance concerns will have the most losses because of the 
fact that in such a disaster the loss of life is greater among 
the poorer classes." 

The accident insurance companies had heavy losses to 
meet. 



CHAPTER X. 

Magnitude of the Relief Necessary — Twenty Thousand Persons to be 
Clothed and Fed — System of Relief Organization— How the Storm 
Affected Trade. 

THE situation at Galveston on Saturday niglit, just a 
week after the calamity, wa>s tiius described by a compe- 
tent authority who arrived in the city the day after the 
flood: 

"It must be possible by this time to give some idea of 
the magnitude which relief must assume. There were 
38,000 persons in the city when the census was taken a 
few weeks ago. After the storm 32,000 remained. This 
latter statement is made after careful inquiry from the 
best sources of information. About 3,000 have left the 
island, most of them women and children, to go to 
friends temporarily. 

"Of the 29,000 remaining how many must be helped 
and how long? 

"The question is a hard one. The men who knew most 
of the situation, who have labored day and night since 
Sunday, hesitate to answer. 

"Mr. McVittie, the executive head of the relief work, 
said it was possible there were 3,500 persons in the city 
who did not require any assistance whatever. Mr. Lowe 
of the Galveston News, a most careful and conservative 
man, said he believed fully two-thirds of the surviving 
and remaining population were dependent to-day. Oth- 
ers familiar with the situation were asked for their opin- 
ions, and they estimated variously the number that must 
be helped temporarily at from two-thirds to three- 
fourths. 

180 



RELIEF ORGANIZATION. 181 

"The conclusion is forced that there are to-day in Gal- 
veston 20,000 persons who must be fed and clothed. The 
proportion of those who were in fair circumstances and 
lost all is astonishing. Relief cannot be limited to those 
who formed the poor class before the storm. 

"An intelligent man left Galveston to-day, taking his 
wife and children to relatives. He said: 'A week ago I 
had a good home and a business which paid me between 
|400 and |500 a month. To-day I have nothing. My 
house was swept aAvay and my business is gone. I see no 
way of re- establishing it in the near future.' 

"Thici man had a real estate and house-renting agency. 

"At the military headquarters, one of the principal of- 
ficials doing temporary service for the city, said: 'Before 
the storm I had a good home and good income. I felt 
rich. My house is gone and my business. The fact is I 
don't even own the clothes I stand before you in. I bor- 
rowed them.' 

"Now these are not exceptional cases. They are fairly 
typical. Men who worked for salaries, who rented or 
owned good houses and considered themselves fairlj^ well 
provided for, as the world goes, are to-day, by thousands, 
not only penniless, but without food, without clothes, and 
without employment. 

"There must be fed and clothed these 20,000 until they 
can work out their temporal salvation. And then some- 
thing ought to be done to help the worthy get on their 
feet and make a fresh start. Some people will leave Gal- 
veston. It is plain, however, that nothing like the num- 
ber expected will go. Galveston is still home to the great 
majority. It was a city of fine local pride. It w^as one of 
the most beautiful of American cities, and with its sur- 
rounding of gulf and bay was a i^leasant place to live in, 



182 RELIEF ORGANIZATION. 

even in summer. Those who can stay and live here will 
do so. 

"If the country responds to the needs in anything like 
the measure given to Johnstown, Chicago, Charleston and 
other stricken cities and sections, Galveston as a com- 
munity will not only be restored but will enter upon a 
greater future than was expected before the storm. 

'This seems rather an extraordinary thing to say. It 
has been the experience, wherefore it is expected here. 
Since Tuesday there has been no doubt of Galveston's res- 
toration. If in the future this city celebrates a flood an- 
niversary the day upon which the community's courage 
was reborn ought to be remembered. 

''From a central organization the relief work has been 
divided by wards. A depot and a subcommittee were 
established in each ward of the city. 'They who will 
not w^ork should not eat' was the principle adopted when 
the organization was i)erfected. Few idle mouths are 
now being fed in Galveston. There are fatherless, and 
there are widows, and there are sick who must have 
charity. 

"But the able-bodied are working in parties under the 
direction of bosses. They are paid in food and clothing. 
In this way the relief committee is, within the first week, 
meeting the needs of the survivors and at the same time 
gradually clearing the streets and burning the ruins and 
refuse. 

"A single report made by a ward committeeman to Mr. 
McA^ittie will serve to show on what scale this plan is 
being carried out. 'In my ward,' said the committeeman, 
'I have 600 men employed and I am feeding 3,700 per- 
sons.' 

"The system of the Galveston relief organization is ad- 
mirable. Perhaps never before was economy practiced so 



RELIEF ORGANIZATION. 183 

rigidly in tlie distribution of the nation's largess. 'Our 
aim,' Mr. McVittie said, 'is to distribute no money at this 
time, but to employ Avitli relief funds all of the labor in 
the clearing of the city and the cremation of the dead 
until we have removed to that extent the ravages of the 
storm. 

" 'We employ all who can work and we give food and 
clothing as remuneration. We scrutinize most carefully 
applications for charity and grant none if the applicant 
is able to render service. We adopted this plan in the 
beginning and we are going to continue it. Most of our 
people responded to the rule and went to work. To those 
who were unwilling to work we applied the authority of 
martial law. 

" 'All Galveston is now at work and the contributions 
which we are receiving from the sympathizing nation are 
going to pay for the most urgent work the storm imposed 
on us.' 

"Six days have wrought surprising changes in condi- 
tions at Galveston. Each day has been a chapter in it- 
self. Sunday was paralysis. On Monday came the be- 
ginning of realization. Tuesday might be called the 
crisis period. And the crisis was passed safely. What 
has been accomplished since the turning point on Tues- 
day is amazing. It is almost as incredible as some of the 
effects of this visitation are without precedent. 

"On Sunday the people did little but go about dazed 
and bewildered, gathering a few hundred of the bodies 
which were in their way. On Monday the born leaders 
who are usually not discovered in a. community until 
some great emergency arises began to forge in front. 
They were not men from one rank in point of wealth or 
intelligence. They came from all classes. For example 
there was Hughes, the 'longshoreman. 



184 RELIEF ORGANIZATION. 

"Bodies whicli lay exposed in tlie streets and which 
were necessary to remove somewhere lest they be stepped 
on were carried into a temporary morgue until 500 lay in 
rows on the floor. Then a problem in mortality, such as 
no other American community ever faced, was presented. 
Pestilence, which stalked forth by Monday, seemed about 
to take possession of what the storm had left. Imme- 
diate disposition of those bodies was absolutely necessary 
to save the living. Then it was that Lowe and McVittie 
and Sealy and the others, who by common impulse had 
come together to deal with the problem, found Hughes. 

"The 'longshoreman took up the most grewsome task 
ever seen away from a battlefield. He had to have help- 
ers. Some volunteered, others were pressed into the ser- 
vice at the point of the bayonet. Whisky by the 
bucketful was carried to these men and they were 
drenched with it. The stimulant was kept at hand and 
applied continuously. Only in this way was it possible 
for the stoutest-hearted to work in such surroundings. 
Under the direction of Hughes these hundreds of bodies 
already collected and others brought from the central 
part of the city — those which were quickest found — were 
loaded on to an ocean barge and taken far off into the 
gulf to be cast into the sea." 

HOW THE STORM AFFECTED TRADE. 

The following trade statement, issued from New York 
on Saturday, September 15, showed the effect of the great 
storm in commercial circles: 

"The tropical storm that devastated the gulf coast, al- 
most wiping out the city of Galveston and doing damage 
in other parts of the country, caused reduction in the vol- 
ume of business at the South, and railroads In the gulf 



RELIEF ORGANIZATION. 185 

region have probably not shown their maximum losses 
of earnings as yet, but even after such a catastrophe a. re- 
cuperative power is shown. 

"From many quarters of the West and Southeast a 
better distribution of merchandise is reported in jobbing 
and retail circles. The weather has continued favorable 
for the maturing corn crop, with cutting progressing and 
the crop generally be^'ond danger, but damage to cotton 
by the storm is still an unknown quantity. Prices of sta- 
ple commodities are higher for the week, hoisted by the 
sharp rise in cotton, but in manufactured products there 
is little change, though steady increases of business at 
the current level is satisfactory. 

"Cotton closed last week at the highest price in ten 
years, and a large short interest was awaiting reaction. 
Instead, there came news of the disaster in Texas and 
sensational reports that 1,000,000 bales had been de- 
stroyed. At the New York Exchange trading was far in 
excess of all previous records, and prices rose by bounds. 
Subsequently there were less exaggerated reports from 
the South, but the market failed to respond and middling 
uplands advanced 11 cents. 

"The rise in the raw material caused sharp advances in 
cotton goods. In one week standard brown sheetings 
rose from 5.67 to 6 cents, wide bleached sheetings from 20 
to 21 cents, standard brown drills from 5.G7 to 5.87, and 
staple ginghams from 5 to 5.50 cents. Buyers who have 
been delaying for weeks are anxious to secure liberal sup- 
plies, both instant and distant." ^ 

TWO APPEALS WHICH BROUGHT MUCH MONEY. 

Two appeals for aid which brought in much money 
were the following, the first one being by the G. A. R. and 
Women's Relief Corps, Department of Texas: 



186 RELIEF ORGANIZATION. 

"The appalling calamity that has befallen Galveston 
and the coast country has smitten hundreds of our com- 
rades in the city, villages and on farms. In many in- 
stances, portions of whole families are lost; in a hundred 
others, houses are wrecked, live stock killed and crops 
destroyed. 

"George B. McClellan Post of this city is doing what it 
can, but its efforts are all inadequate. Systematic organ- 
ized assistance alone can avert distress, and we therefore 
appeal to the members of this department in behalf of 
these comrades. They had made their last stand and ef- 
fort to secure for themselves and families homes on the 
coast country of Texas. Their all is involved. Far along 
in the evening of their life they cannot recuperate. 

"I'f there was time to make another crop they have 
nothing with which to make it. Unless we help them 
they must abandon their homes, their all. If the princi- 
ples of our order — fraternity, charity and loyalty — are of 
any avail, it is time to show it. Fraternity means organi- 
zation — charity means everything and is the 'greatest of 
all.' Loyalty means standing by our comrades as well as 
the flag. They were our brothers in arms, they are our 
kindred in adversity. 

"We confidently expect every post, every member of 
every corps to contribute something. Remittances and 
supplies from the G. A. R. should be made to Colonel E. 
G. Rust, assistant quartermaster general, and from the 
Women's Relief Corps to Mrs. Mina Metcalf, both of 
Houston, Texas. 

"CHARLES B. PECK, 

"Department Commander. 
"ANNETTE VAN HORN, 
"Department Commander." 



RELIEF ORGANIZATION. 187 

The other was by President Michaux of the Travelers' 
Protective Association, addressed to the members of the 
organization throughout the United States: 

^'Whereas, A great calamity has befallen the city of 
Galveston, thousands of dead, dying and wounded to be 
cared for by our united and benevolent people; and 

''Whereas, Numbers of traveling men are reported se- 
riously wounded; therefore, to care for immediate wants, 
I deem it necessary to call on the traveling men to con- 
tribute as much as in their power to help, aid and assist 
our stricken companions. 

"Our association is able and will take care of all its un- 
fortunate members, and I appeal to you in the name of 
charity and love to assist us in caring for them not so 
fortunate. Remit what you can afford by postofflce, ex- 
press money order to James E. Ludlow, San Antonio, 
Texas. Secretaries of all local T. P. A. posts will receive 
and remit your subscriptions. I trust that this appeal 
to the traveling men will be met by a quick response. 
Sincerely and fraternally, 

"D. W. MICHAUX, President. 

"Texas T. P. A. of America, Houston, Texas." 



CHAPTER XI. 

Insanity Follows Frightful Suffering's of the Poor Tictlms— Five Hundred 
Demented Ones — Indifferent to the Loss of Relatives. 

HUNDREDS of people became insane during the week 
succeeding the flood. They had bravelj^ borne the loss of 
relatives, the hunger and fatigue, had apparently been 
unmindful of the horrors of the catastrophe, and had, as 
a rule, given no indications of mental aberration while the 
disaster was on, but when the danger was passed and re- 
lief from the great strain came, the overburdened mind 
gave way. 

J. A. Fernandez, a prominent citizen of Galveston, who 
was connected with the relief work, told of many cases 
which came under his observation. 

The second Sunday following the storm, September 16, 
he said, in recounting his experiences: 

"There are at least 500 persons there whose minds have 
become unbalanced, and some have lost every vestige of 
their mental faculties, there being some raving maniacs 
among them, one of whom came under my personal obser- 
vation. His name is Charles Thompson, a gardener. He 
occupied a room above me at the hotel, and during the 
night he kept raving and pacing the floor and kept call- 
ing on God to witness his action, continually invoking the 
mercy of the Deity. He has lost his family and home, and 
by a miracle saved himself. 

"As soon as he was out of personal danger on that aw- 
ful night he commenced rescuing women and children 
and saved seventy people, according to a gentleman who 
knew the circumstances. He then lost his mind. He 
created so much excitement at the hotel that two police- 

188 



INSANITY FOLLOWS SUFFERING. 189 

men were detailed to capture him. He heard them ap- 
proaching and leaped out of a three-story window to an 
adjoining building. His fall was somewhat broken, but 
his body struck a bay window in my room. He was badly 
injured, but continued his mad flight. He baffled his pur- 
suers and escaped. This occurred at 5 o'clock this morn- 
ing. This is only one illustration of the conditions that 
prevail there. 

"A man whose wife was drowned in the flood had been 
searching in vain for her remains for several days, and 
yesterday located the bod^^ in the water near Thirty-third 
street and Avenue G. Soldiers had also seen the body, 
and they took it in charge. He protested and rushed to 
take possession of the body. The soldiers were stern and 
had to discharge their duty, and the husband, practically 
demented, was bound while the body was thrown in the 
flames and soon burned to a crisp. The man made frantic 
efforts to get away from the soldiers, but to no avail. 

"In the course of my rounds I saw a family of six half- 
naked, and they appeared crazy, and would look into the 
face of every stranger with a vacant stare that was piti- 
able in the extreme. They w^ere hurrying in the direction 
of the places where provisions were being distributed. 
They had lost their homes, and had only the clothing on 
their backs. There were thousands in a similar condi- 
tion." 

I. Thompson, a. young man who was very active in sav- 
ing life during the night of the storm, became insane be- 
cause of the awful scenes he witnessed. Thompson's 
friends first noticed his condition when he told them that 
one of the persons he rescued had deposited |10,000 in 
one of the Galveston banks to his credit and that he was 
going to live in luxury the rest of his life. 

Thompson retired to his room on the third floor of the 



190 INSANITY FOLLOWS SUFFERING. 

Washington hotel Saturday night seemingly sane. Soon 
afterward he became violent. The person engaged to 
watch him was compelled to leave the room for a short 
time, and when he returned found Thompson had 
wrenched the shutters off his window and leaped out upon 
an awning and thence to the street. He was seen run- 
ning toward the bay, and in all probability threw him- 
self in and was drowned. 

Another case was that of a young woman who was 
caught in the storm, and with two other women and about 
fifty men and boys found refuge in an office. As the storm 
gradually subsided the young woman started for her home 
quite reassured. She found a wild waste of waters sweep- 
ing over the site of her home. Among the first victims 
carried into the temporary morgue were the young wo- 
man's mother, brother and two children. These were 
quickly followed by her brother's wife and her two sis- 
ters. The shock overthrew the girl's reason, and she be- 
came a nervous wreck, without a relative in the world. 

STOEM KEFUGEES PRECIPITATE A PANIC IN A 

CONVENT. 

The Ursuline convent and academy, in charge of the 
Sisters of St. Angelo, proved a haven of refuge for nearly 
1,000 homeless and storm-driven unfortunates. No one 
was refused admittance to the sheltering institution. Ne- 
groes and whites were taken in without question and the 
asylum was thrown open to all who sought its protecting 
wings. 

In the midst of the storm the hundreds or more negroes 
grew wild and shouted and sang in true camp-meeting 
style until the nerves of the other refugees were shat- 
tered and a panic seemed imminent. It was then that 



INSANITY FOLLOWS SUFFERING. 191 

Mother Superioress Joseph rang the chancel bell and 
caused a hush of the pandemonium. When quiet had 
been restored the mother addressed the negroes and told 
them that it was no time nor place for such scenes; that 
if they wanted to praj they should do so from their hearts, 
and the Creator of all things would hear their offerings 
above the roar of the hurricane, which raged with in- 
creased fury as she spoke to the awe-stricken assemblage. 
The negroes listened attentively and v^^hen the mother 
told them that all those who wished to be baptized and 
resign themselves to God could do so nearly every one 
asked that the sacrament be administered. The panic 
had been precipitated by the falling of the north wall of 
that section of the building in which the negroes had 
sought refuge. Order and silent prayer were brought 
about by the nun's determination and presence of mind. 

Families that had been separated by the conflict of ele- 
ments were united by the waters of the gulf tossing them 
into this haven of refuge. Heart-moving scenes were pre- 
sented by these unions as the half-dead, mangled and 
bruised unfortunates were rescued and dragged from the 
waters by the more fortunate members of their families. 

The academy was to have opened for the fall session 
on Tuesday and forty-two boarding scholars from all 
parts of the State had arrived at the convent, preparatory 
to resuming their studies on that date. The community 
of nuns comprised forty sisters, and they, too, were there 
administering cheer and mercy to the sufferers, many of 
whom were more dead than alive when brought into the 
shelter. Within this religious home and in the cells of the 
nuns four babies came into this world during that dark 
night. 

Mother Joseph, in speaking of the incidents of the night 
within the convent walls, said that she believed it was the 



192 INSANITY FOLLOWS SUFFERING. 

first time in the history of the world that a baby had 
been born in the nuns' cell of a convent. They were 
christened, for no one expected to live to see the light of 
day, and it was voted that these babes should not leave 
the world they had just entered without baptism, and, 
regardless of the religious belief of the parents, the little 
ones were baptized. 

WASHED UP IN A TRUNK. 

Mrs. William Henry Haldeman was one of the mothers 
and whose new-born babe was christened William Henry. 
The experiences of this mother were horrible. Only a 
chapter was learned by a reporter, as told by Mother 
Joseph. Mrs. Haldeman was thrown on the mercies of 
the storm when her home went down and was swept away. 
The family had separated when they started to abandon 
their home to the greed of the storm. When Mrs. Halde- 
man was carried away on the roof of the wrecked cottage 
she lost all trace of the other members of the family, but 
never lost faith and courage. The roof struck some ob- 
struction and the next instant Mrs. Haldeman was hurled 
from her improvised raft and landed in a trunk which 
was rocked on the waves. 

Cramped up in the trunk, the poor vv-oman, suffering 
agonies, was protected to a limited extent and was af- 
forded some warmth. On went the trunk, tossed high on 
the sea, bumping against driftwood until the crude bark 
was hurled against the Ursuline convent walls and was 
pulled into the building. The little babe was born a few 
hours later, and while the good sisters and some of the 
women in the building were attending to the mother and 
child another chapter in this family's history was being 
enacted just without the convent walls. In a tree in the 



INSANITY FOLLOWS SUFFERING. 193 

convent yard a young man, a brother of Mrs. Haldeman, 
battled with the wind and waters while clinging fast to 
the limb of the tree which swayed and bowed to the wind. 
He knew not where he was. He could but merely dis- 
cern the outlines of the academy building. While not 
knowing his chance of life or death he heard the plaintive 
cry of a child near by. Reaching out with one hand he 
caught the dress of a little tot, who, child-like, cried out, 
*'Me swimming." The child had run the mill race buoyed 
by the force of the storm and had not had time to realize 
her peril. The young man in the tree was Mrs. Halde- 
man's brother, and the child which had come to him on 
the waves was Mrs. Haldeman's little girl. A few min- 
utes afterward a rescuing party was sent out from the 
convent in response to cries for help and found the young 
man and his niece and brought him to the sheltering in- 
stitution. The reunion of at least a part of the family 
followed a few minutes later. 

Dr. Truhart, chairman of the organization of physicians 
for the relief of the wounded and sick, states that there 
is absolutely no further necessity for trained nurses and 
physicians. 

SAVED AS BY A MIRACLE. 

Destitute save for a few personal effects carried in a 
small valise, and with nerves shattered by a week of hor- 
ror, Mr. and Mrs. C. A. Prutsman, with their two daugh- 
ters, 12 and 6 years old, reached Chicago Sunday morning, 
September 16, from the flood-swept district of Texas. 

"Yes, we were fortunate," said Mrs. Prutsman, as she 
leaned wearily back in a rocking chair and tenderly con- 
templated the two children at her side. "It seems to me 
just like an awful dream, and when I think of the hun- 



194 INSANITY FOLLOWS SUFFERING. 

dreds and hundreds of children who were killed right be- 
fore our very eyes, I feel as though I always ought to be 
satisfied no matter what comes." 

Mr. Prutsman said: 

"The reports from Galveston are not half as appalling as 
the situation really is. We left the fated city Wednesday 
afternoon, going by boat to Texas City, and by rail to 
Houston. The condition of Galveston at that time, while 
showing an improvement, was awful, and never shall I 
forget the terrible scenes that met our eyes as the boat 
on which we left steamed out of the harbor. There were 
bodies on all sides of us. In some places they were piled 
six and seven deep, and the stench was horrible. 

"I resided with my family at 718 Nineteenth street. 
This is fourteen blocks away from the beach, yet my house 
was swept away at 5 p. m. Saturday, and with it went 
everything we had in the world. Fifteen minutes before 
I took my wife and children to the courthouse and we 
were saved, along with about 1,000 others who sought 
refuge there. When we went through the streets the 
water was up to our arms and we carried the children on 
our heads. 

"I assisted for several days in the work of rescue. In 
one pile of debris we found a woman who seemed to have 
escaped the flood, but who was injured and pinned down 
so she could not escape. A guard came along, and, after 
failing to rescue her, deliberately shot her to end her 
misery. 

"The streets present a grewsome appearance. Every 
available wagon and vehicle in the city is being used to 
transport the dead, and it is no uncommon thing to see 
a load of bodies ten deep. The stench in the city is nau- 
seating. Since the flood the only water that could be 
used for drinking purposes was in cisterns, and it has 



INSANITY FOLLOWS SUFFERING. 195 

become tainted with the slime and filth that covers the 
city until it is little better than no water at all. 

"Since the city was placed under martial law conditions 
have been much better and there is little lawlessness. 
The soldiers have shown no quarter and have orders to 
shoot on sight. This has had a wonderful effect on the 
disreputable characters who have flocked into the city. 

"Everybody who remains in Galveston is made to work, 
and the punishment for a refusal is about the same as that 
meted out to ghouls. I saw four colored men shot in one 
day. There were confined in the hold of a steamer in the 
harbor six colored men who were found by the soldiers 
with a flour sack almost filled with fingers and ears on 
which were jewels. These men probably have been pub- 
licly executed before this time. 

"In the work of rescue we found whole families tied 
together with ropes, and in several instances mothers had 
their babes clasped in their arms. 

"Scores of unfortunates straggle into Houston every 
day and their condition is pitiable. Several have lost 
their reason. The citizens of Houston are doing all in 
their power to meet the demands of the sufferers, and 
every available building in the city has been converted 
into a hospital. When we arrived in Houston we scarcely 
had clothes enough to cover us and the citizens fitted us 
out and started us north. The fear of fever or some awful 
plague drove us from Galveston. 

"Already speculators are flocking into the city, and 
there is some activity among them over tax-title real es- 
tate. In several instances whole families were wiped out 
of existence, and the opportunities in this line seem to 
be great." 



CHAPTER XII. 

Serious Danger from Fire — Scarcity of Boats to Carry People to the Main- 
laud — Laborers Imported into Galvoston — Untold Sufferings on Boliyar 
Island — Experience of a Chicago Man. 

ONE of the serious dangers which Galveston faced for 
many days was fire. Not a drop of rain had fallen during 
the two weeks succeeding the hurricane, and the hot 
winds and blistering suns made the wrecked houses and 
buildings so much tinder, piled mountain high in every 
direction. In nearly all parts of the city the fire hydrants 
were buried fifty feet, in some places a hundred feet deep 
under the wreckage, and as yet the w^ater supply at best 
was only of the most meager kind. 

Galveston's fire department was small and badly crip- 
pled and would have been utterly powerless to stay the 
flames should they once staii:. There was no relief nearer 
than Houston, and that was hours away. 

In view of all the then existing conditions it was no 
wonder that the cry was: "Get the women and children 
to the mainland; anywhere off the island," nor was it a 
wonder that with one small boat carrying only 300 pas- 
sengers and making only two trips a day people fairly 
fought to be taken aboard. 

All during Sunday, September 16, fears were enter- 
tained by the authorities that even this service would be 
cut off and Galveston left without any means of getting 
to the mainland owing to the trouble with the owner of 
the boat. 

The sanitary conditions did not improve to any great 
extent. Dr. Trueheart, chairman of the committee in 
charge of caring for the sick and injured, was proceeding 

190 



DANGER AND WANT EVERYWHERE. 197 

with dispatch. More ph^^sicians were needed, and he re- 
quested that about thirty outside physicians come to Gal- 
veston and work for at least a month, and, if needed, 
longer. 

The city's electric light service was completely de- 
stroyed and the city electrician said it would be sixty 
days before the business portion of the city could be 
lighted. 

A glorious and modern Galveston to be rebuilt in place 
of the old one, was the cry raised by the citizens, but it 
seemed a task beyond human power to ever remove the 
wreckage of the old city. 

The total number of people fed in the ten wards Satur- 
day was 16,144. Sunday the number increased slightly. 
No accurate statement of the amount of supplies could be 
obtained as they were put in the general stock as soon as 
received. 

GALVESTON SCARED BY A FIRE. 

Galveston received another scare Sunday night, the 
16th, when it became rumored that Houston, where all 
the relief trains were side-tracked, was burning with its 
precious supplies of food and clothing. 

The scare grev/ out of a |400,000 fire in Houston, which 
destroyed the Merchants and Planters' oil mill, the larg- 
est in the world. The fire broke out at noon, but was not 
observable until nightfall, when the glow in the sky 
could be seen for a great distance. 

Galveston was reassured by telegraph that a second 
southern Texas calamity was out of the question and that 
the relief supplies were safe. 

One feature of the efforts to relieve the people of Gal- 
veston was the delay in getting supplies to the island 



198 DANGER AND WANT EVERYWHERE. 

citj. Trainload after trainload was in Houston, which 
would have assisted materially in the work of relief, but 
on account of the limited transportation facilities they 
could not be hurried there. There was but one track and 
it was of light rails and was used only for terminal busi- 
ness. Even if the supplier were at Texas City they could 
not be moved fast, as there were not enough boats of 
light draft at Galveston. Buffalo bayou could be used 
from Houston, but it was impossible to get the boats for 
the purpose. 

LABORERS IMPORTED INTO GALVESTON. 

The general committee of public safety at Galveston 
decided, on Sej)tember 17, to import laborers. This ac- 
tion was taken with the consent of the local unions. 
Skilled mechanics had been busy burying the dead with- 
out pay, but were relieved of this work and replaced by 
imported unskilled labor. 

According to Dr. William W. Meloy of Chicago, who 
has investigated the health situation, there was no fever 
in Galveston September 17. 

"The water supply has been adequate," he said, "and 
is not liable to contamination. Nervous prostration, 
hysteria and mild dementia occur among the wealthy 
class, due to shock, exhaustion and grief. Among the 
poorer classes the use of spoiled food during the earlier 
part of the week has led to intestinal troubles. Several 
cases of heat prostration have occurred among the work- 
men. The danger from the unburied dead is mostly to 
the people who handle them." 

Major Frank M. Spencer arrived at Galveston on Sep- 
tember 16 with $50,000 cash from Governor Savers, to be 
expended in hastening the disposal of the debris and the 



DANGER AND WANT EVERYWHERE. 199 

burial of bodies. Major Spencer arrived too late to bank 
the money and for twenty-four hours it rested in the safe 
of the Tremont House, guarded by soldiers. 

Galveston passed the first Sunday following the dis- 
aster burying the dead and clearing away debris. Gen- 
eral Scurry's order that all men able to work should labor 
to the limit of their strength was carried out to the letter. 

"We're thankful," said Mayor Jones on Monday, when 
told of the arrival of the Chicago relief train at Houston. 
''You can't make that statement too strong to the people 
of Chicago. We are thankful and thankful again. Chi- 
cago people are among the staunchest friends in the world 
in times like these. Yes, we'll build Galveston up again, 
and, like Chicago, we'll make it a better city than it was. 
We shall never forget the kindness of the people of Chi- 
cago in coming so generously to our relief, and we all 
thank them from the bottom of our hearts." 



A HELP IN GETTING BELIEF SUPPLIES TO THE 

NEEDY. 

^Lrrangements were completed by the Santa Fe road 
September 17 whereby it established a barge line to Gal- 
veston from Virginia Point. This helped somewhat in 
getting relief supplies from the mainland. 

Clara Barton, head of the Bed Cross league, arrived at 
Galveston that day. 

Captain W. A. Hutchins, superintendent of the Gal- 
veston life-saving station, returned from a trip along the 
island and reported that he saw a great many bodies. 
He said the life-saving crew at San Luis had taken from 
the beach 181 bodies and buried them at different points 
along the island. 



200 DANGER AND WANT EVERYWHERE. 

UNTOLD SUFFERINGS OF A FAMILY ON BOLIVAR 

ISLAND. 

After suffering untold privations for over a week on 
Bolivar peninsula, an isolated neck of land extending into 
Galveston bay a few miles from tlie east end of Galveston 
Island, the Rev. L. P. Davis, wife and five young children 
reached Houston September 17 famished, penniless and 
nearly naked, but overcome with amazenient and joy at 
their miraculous delivery from what seemed to them cer- 
tain death. Wind and water wrecked their home, an- 
nihilated their neighbors and destroyed every particle of 
food for miles around, yet they passed through the ter- 
rible days and nights raising their voices above the shriek 
of the wind in singing hymns and in prayer. And through 
it all not one member of the family was injured to the ex- 
tent of even a scratch. 

When the hurricane struck the Rev. Mr. Davis' home 
at Patton beach the water rose so fast that it was pouring 
into the windows before the members of the family rea- 
lized their danger. Rushing out Mr, Davis hitched his 
team and placing his wife and children into a wagon 
started for a place of safety. Before they had left his 
yard another family of refugees drove up to ask assist- 
ance, only to be upset by the waves before his very eyes. 
With diflflculty the party was saved from drowning, and 
when safe in the Davis wagon were half floated, half 
drawn by the team to a grove. 

With clotheslines Mr. Davis lashed his 12 and 14 year 
old boys in a tree. One younger child he secured with the 
chain of his wagon, and lifting his wife into another tree 
he climbed beside her. 

While the hurricane raged above and a sea of water 



DANGER AND WANT EVERYWHERE. 201 

dashed wildly below, Mrs. Davis clung to her 6-month-old 
babe with one arm, while with the other she held fast to 
her precarious haven of refuge. The minister held a baby 
of 18 months in the same manner, and while the little one 
cried for food he prayed. In other trees the family he 
had rescued from drowning found a precarious footing. 

When the night had passed and the water receded, 
wreckage, dead animals and the corpses of parishioners 
surrounded the devoted party. There was nothing to eat, 
and, nearly dead with exhaustion, the preacher and his 
little flock set out on foot to seek assistance. They were 
too weak to continue far and sank down on the plain, 
while Mr. Davis pushed on alone. Five miles away a 
farmhouse was found, partially intact, and securing a 
team Davis returned for his half-dead party. 

For two days they remained at the home of the hos- 
pitable farmer and then set out afoot to find a hamlet or 
make their way over the desert-like peninsula to Bolivar 
Point. In the heat of the burning sun they plodded on 
along the water front, subsisting upon a steer which they 
killed and devoured raw, until finally they came upon an 
abandoned and overturned sailboat high on the beach. 

With a united effort they succeeded in launching the 
boat and with improvised distress signals displayed man- 
aged to sail to Galveston. There, because of red tape, 
they were unable to secure clothing, although they were 
given a little food and transportation to Houston. Clad 
in an old pair of trousers, a tattered shirt and torn shoes, 
with his family in even worse plight, the circuit rider of 
the Patton Beach, Johnston's Bethel, Bolivar Point and 
High Island Methodist churches rode into Houston, dirty, 
weak and half-starved. Here the family were sent to a 
hospital and cared for. 

They were sent to Dickinson, Tex., where they had rel- 



202 DANGER AND WANT EVERYWHERE. 

atives, who aided them until the Methodist church came 
to their relief. 

Bolivar reported that up to September 16 220 bodies 
had been found and buried and many were still lying on 
the sands. Assistance was needed. It was a fact gen- 
erall/ commented upon and merely emphasized by the 
clergyman's experience, that while succor was being 
rushed to Galveston other sufferers were neglected. The 
relief trains en route from Houston to Galveston tra- 
versed a storm-swept section where famishing and nearly 
naked survivors sat on the wrecks of their homes and 
hungrily watched tons of provisions whirling past them 
while there was little prospect of aid reaching them. 

MAN HAD HIS BROKEN NECK SET. 

One of the most difficult operations known to medical 
history, and a rarity, was performed by Drs. Johnson, Lu- 
cas and Ryon Monday morning, September 17, at a hos- 
pital in Houston. 

F. H. Wigzell, of Alvin, a suburban town not far from 
Galveston, was blown half a mile in his house and suf- 
fered dislocation of the cervical vertebrae. His head fell 
forward on his chest and he had no power to raise it. It 
was a plain case of broken neck and the physicians oper- 
ated successfully. They placed the neck in a plaster cast 
and the man will live for years to come. 

MOST TERRIBLE WEEK OF HIS LIFE. 

L. F. Menage of Chicago, who returned from Galveston 
the Friday night succeeding the disaster, reached the 
Tremont Hotel, Galveston, the Friday evening before the 
terrible storm began. He said it had been the most ter- 



DANGER AND WANT EVERYWHERE. 203 

rible week in his experience; the most awful two days a 
man could imagine were the Sunday and Monday suc- 
ceeding the hurricane. 

"One man would ask another how his family had come 
out," said Mr. Menage, "and the answer would be indiffer- 
ent and hard — almost offish; 'Oh, all gone.' 'All gone' 
was the phrase on all sides. 

"The night before the disaster, when I reached the ho- 
tel, it was blowing rather hard, and the clerk said we 
were in for a storm, and I asked him if his roof was firmly 
fixed, and he said, 'Well, it won't be quite as bad as that,' 
but by the next night at the same time there was three 
feet of water in the rotunda and the skylight had fallen in 
and the servants' annex had been blown to pieces, and the 
place was crowded with refugees who arrived from all 
points of the city in boats. Saturday night there was 
little sleep, yet no one realized the extent of the disaster. 

"On Sunday morning one could walk on the higher 
streets, so quickly had the water gone down. I took a 
walk along the beach, and the place was one great litter 
of overturned houses, debris of all kinds and corpses. I 
met one woman who burst into tears at sight of a small 
rocker, her i^roperty mixed in among the wreckage. She 
had lost all her family in the flood. 

"People were for the most part bereft of their senses 
from the horror, and a single funeral would have seemed 
more terrible — more solemn— than a pile of cremated 
bodies. 

"The tales of looting are only too true, and as I passed 
northward in a sailboat on Tuesday I heard the shots 
ring out which told some ghoul was paying the penalty. 
Galveston will rise again on the old site, and without as 
much difficulty as is at present anticipated. Most of the 



204 DANGER AND WANT EVERYWHERE. 

people will, however, try and live on the mainland. At 
least 5,000 persons perished." 

THE FLOOD HORRORS DROVE THEM CRAZY. 

Three-fourths of the people who applied for relief were 
mentally dull. The physicians said with proper care 
most of them might be cured. 

A young girl was brought into the general relief sta- 
tion in Galveston on Friday night. The relief corps 
found her huddled up in an empty freight car, laughing 
and singing to amuse herself. The doctors said food and 
care were all she needed to restore her to reason. 

It was over a week after the flood before those from the 
outside really began to find out what the awful calamity 
was to the people in the desolated city. 

The first shock w^as wearing off, the long lists of dead 
and missing were getting to be an old story, and the sick 
and suffering were crawling into places of refuge. Some 
of them had been sleeping on the open prairies ever since 
the storm, most of them, in fact, men with broken arms 
and legs, sick women and ailing children. 

They would crawl out of the wreck of their homes and 
lie down on the bare ground to die. 

Relief parties found such as these every day and 
brought them into the hospitals as. fast as possible. One 
relief party found 5,000 people in the vicinity of Galves- 
ton homeless, helpless, hopeless and tearless. 

It was a sight to cause a stone statue to weep. 

Monday, September 17, a man rode up to a hospital 
at Houston, and told the doctors he had just come from 
the Brazos bottoms. 

Said he: "The folks there are starving. There is not a 
pound of flour left and the children are crying for milk. 



DANGER AND WANT EVERYWHERE. 205 

There are so many sick people there that we don't know 
what to do. Can you send some one down?" 

The physician in charge said he would go at once. 

The man on horseback leaned over his saddle and tried 
to speak. Something in his face frightened me. I called 
to two doctors. They ran out and caught him. He was 
in a dead faint. When we had brought him to he laughed 
sheepishly. 

"I don't know what's the matter with me," he said. 
"Ain't never been taken this way before." 

The doctors looked at each other and smiled, but the 
nurses' eyes were full of tears. The man had not tasted 
food for thirty-six hours, and he had ridden fifty miles in 
the broiling Texas sun. 

More troops were called for on September 17 by Gov- 
ernor Sayers of Texas to relieve those on duty at Gal- 
veston who were worn out by their hard work. The re- 
sponse was prompt and hearty. 



CHAPTER XIII. 

Two Women Tell Hoiv They Were Affected at Galveston— One Arrived After 
the Catastrophe, While the Other Was in the Storm from Befjinning 
to End. 

A WOMAN — a newspaper correspondent, and the first of 
the fair sex from the outside to gain admittance to the 
Sealed City of Galveston — wrote a description of what 
she saw and heard there. She arrived in Galveston on 
Friday, and although she was on a relief train carryinp; 
doctors, nurses and medical supplies, she had hard work 
to get past the file of soldiers at the wharf, but she at last 
succeeded. 
Said she: 

"The engineer who brought our train down from Hous- 
ton spent the night before groping around in the wrecks 
on the beach looking for his wife and three children. He 
found them, dug a rude grave in the sand and set up a 
little board marked with his name. 

"The man in front of me on the car had floated all 
Monday night with his wife and mother on a part of the 
roof of his little home. He told me that he kissed his 
wife good-by at midnight and told her that he could not 
hold on any longer; but he did hold on, dazed and half- 
conscious, until the day broke and showed him that he 
was alone on his piece of driftwood. He did not even 
know when the woman that he loved had died. 

"Every man on the train — there were no women there — 
had lost some one that he loved in the terrible disaster, 
and was going across the bay to try and find some trace 
of his family." 

As the train neared Texas City, near Galveston, a great 

206 



EXPERIENCES OF TWO WOMEN. 207 

flame leaped up, and she said to one of four men near her, 
"What a terrible fire! Some of the large buildings must 
be burning." 

She then went on to say: 

"A man who was passing on the deck behind my chair 
heard me. He stopped, put his hand on the bulwark and 
turned down and looked into my face, his face like the 
face of a dead man; but he laughed. 

" 'Buildings!' he said. 'Don't you know what is burning 
over there? It is my wife and children — such little chil- 
dren! Why, the tallest was not as high as this' — he laid 
his hand on the bulwark — 'and the little one was just 
learning to talk. 

" 'She called my name the other day, and now they are 
burning over there — they and the mother who bore them. 
She was such a little, tender, delicate thing, always so 
easily frightened, and now she's out there all alone with 
the two babies, and they're burning.' 

"The man laughed again and began again to walk up 
and down the deck. 

" 'That's right,' said the Marshal of the State of Texas, 
taking off his broad hat and letting the starlight shine 
on his strong face. 'That's right. We had to do it. We've 
burned over 1,000 people to-day, and to-morrow we shall 
burn as many more, 

" 'Yesterday we stopped burying the bodies at sea; we 
had to give the men on the barges whisky to give them 
courage to do the work. They carried out hundreds of the 
dead at one time, men and women, negroes and white peo- 
ple, all piled up as high as the barge could stand it, and 
the men did not go out far enough to sea, and the bodies 
have begun drifting back again.' 

" 'Look!' said the man who was walking the deck, touch- 
ing my shoulder with his shaking hand. 'Look there!' 



208 EXPERIENCES OF TWO WOMEN. 

"Before I had time to think I had to look, and saw 
floating in the water fhe body of an old woman, whose 
hair was shining in the starlight. A little farther on we 
saw a group of strange driftwood. 

"We looked closer and found it to be a mass of wooden 
slabs, with names and dates cut upon them, and floating 
on top of them were marble stones, two of them. 

"The graveyard, which has held the sleeping citizens 
of Galveston for many, many years, was giving up its 
dead. We pulled up at a little wharf in the hush of the 
starlight; there were no lights anywhere in the city except 
a few scattered lamps shining from a few desolate, half- 
destroyed houses. We picked our way up the street. The 
ground was slimy with the debris of the sea. 

"We climbed over wreckage and picked our way 
through heaps of rubbish. The terrible, sickening odor 
almost overcame us, and it was all that I could do to shut 
my teeth and get through the streets somehow. The sol- 
diers were camping on the wharf front, lying stretched 
out on the wet sand, the hideous, hideous sand, 
stained and streaked in the starlight with dark 
and cruel blotches. They challenged us, but the 
marshal took us through under his protection. At 
every street corner there was a guard, and every guard 
wore a six-shooter strapped around his waist. 

"I went toward the heart of the city. I do not know 
what the names of the streets were or where I was going. 
I simply picked my way through masses of slime and 
rubbish which scar the beautiful wide streets of the once 
beautiful city. 

"They won't bear looking at, those piles of rubbish. 
There are things there that gripe the heart to see — a 
baby's shoe, for instance, a little red shoe, with a jaunty 
tasseled lace — a bit of a woman's dress and letters. 



EXPERIENCES OP TWO WOMEN. 209 

"The stencil from these piles of rubbish is almost over- 
powering. Down in the very heart of the city most of 
the dead bodies have been removed, but it will not do to 
walk far out. To-day I came upon a group of people in 
a bj-street, a man and two women, colored. The man 
was big and muscular, one of the women was old and one 
was young. 

''They were dipping in a heap of rubbish and when 
they heard my footsteps the man turned an evil, glower- 
ing face upon me and the young woman hid something in 
the folds of her dress. Human ghouls, these, prowling 
in search of prey. 

"A moment later there was noise and excitement in the 
little narrow street, and I looked back and saw the negro 
running, with a crowd at his heels. The crowd caught 
him and would have killed him, but a policeman came 
up. 

"They tied his hands and took him through the streets 
with a whooping rabble at his heels. It goes hard with 
a man in Galveston caught looting the dead in these days. 

"A young man well known in the city shot and killed 
a negro who was cutting the ears from a living woman's 
head to get her ear rings out. The negro lay in the streets 
like a dead dog, and not even the members of his own 
race would give him the tribute of a kindly look. 

"The abomination of desolation reigns on every side. 
The big houses are dismantled, their roofs gone, win- 
dows broken, and the high water mark showing incon- 
ceivably high on the paint. The little houses are gone — 
either completely gone as if they were made of cards and 
a giant hand which was tired of playing with them Lad 
swept them all off the board and put them away, or they 
are lying in heaps of kindling wood covering no one knows 
what horrors beneath. 



200 DANGER AND WANT EVERYWHERE. 

UNTOLD SUFFERINGS OF A FAMILY ON BOLIVAR 

ISLAND. 

After suffering untold privations for over a week on 
Bolivar peninsula, an isolated neck of land extending into 
Galveston bay a few miles from the east end of Galveston 
island, the Rev. L. P. Davis, wife and five young children 
reached Houston September 17 famished, penniless and 
nearly naked, but overcome with amazement and joy at 
their miraculous delivery from what seemed to them cer- 
tain death. Wind and water wrecked their home, an- 
nihilated their neighbors and destroyed every particle of 
food for miles around, yet they passed through the ter- 
rible days and nights raising their voices above the shriek 
of the wind in singing hymns and in prayer. And through 
it all not one member of the family was injured to the ex- 
tent of even a scratch. 

When the hurricane struck the Rev. Mr. Davis' home 
at Patton beach the water rose so fast that it was pouring 
into the windows before the members of the family rea- 
lized their danger. Rushing out ]^r. Davis hitched his 
team and placing his wife and children into a wagon 
started for a place of safety. Before they had left his 
yard another family of refugees drove up to ask assist- 
ance, only to be upset by the waves before his very eyes. 
With difficulty the party was saved from drowning, and 
when safe in the Davis wagon were half floated, half 
drawn by the team to a grove. 

With clotheslines Mr. Davis lashed his 12 and 14 year 
old boys in a tree. One younger child he secured with the 
chain of his wagon, and lifting his wife into another tree 
he climbed beside her. 

While the hurricane raged above and a sea of water 



DANGER AND WANT EVERYWHERE. 197 

with dispatch. More physicians were needed, and he re- 
quested that about thirty outside physicians come to Gal- 
veston and work for at least a month, and, if needed, 
longer. 

The city's electric light service was completely de- 
stroyed and the city electrician said it would be sixty 
days before the business portion of the city could be 
lighted. 

A glorious and modern Galveston to be rebuilt in place 
of the old one, was the cry raised by the citizens, but it 
seemed a task beyond human power to ever remove the 
wreckage of the old city. 

The total number of people fed in the ten wards Satur- 
day was 16,144. Sunday the number increased slightly. 
No accurate statement of the amount of supplies could be 
obtained as they were put in the general stock as soon as 
received. 

GALVESTON SOARED BY A FIRE. 

Galveston received another scare Sunday night, the 
16th, when it became rumored that Houston, where all 
the relief trains were side-tracked, was burning with its 
precious supplies of fopd and clothing. 

The scare grew out of a |400,000 fire in Houston, which 
destroyed the Merchants and Planters' oil mill, the larg- 
est in the world. The fire broke out at noon, but was not 
observable until nightfall, when the glow in the sky 
could be seen for a great distance. 

Galveston was reassured by telegraph that a second 
southern Texas calamity was out of the question and that 
the relief supplies were safe. 

One feature of the efforts to relieve the people of Gal- 
veston was the delay in getting supplies to the island 



212 EXPERIENCES OF TWO WOMEN. 

gone down as mere egg shells before that death-dealing 
wind. 

"About 1:30 o'clock I told Miss George that we must 
make ourway to another building about half a block away. 
The water had risen over five feet in two hours, and as I 
hurried to the front door the wind tore down my hair and 
I was blinded for a time. 

"I turned my eyes to the west and for three long miles 
there was not a building standing, everything had been 
swept away. How we ever reached the two-story build- 
ing a hundred yards away I do not know. We waded 
through the water and every few minutes we were carried 
off our feet and dashed against the floating debris. 

"The building we were trying to reach was a store and 
the foundation kept out the w^ater. We hurried to the 
cellar and stayed there for several hours. At last the 
wind-sv/ept waves found an opening and broke through 
the foundation and we had a mad run to escape the rush- 
ing, swirling waters. 

"We reached the first floor and I shrank into a. corner, 
expecting every second to be carried out to my death. How 
it happened I can never tell, but this and one other build- 
ing were the only ones left for blocks around. 

"As it was several people were killed in the building 
we occupied and the other house that was left standing. 

"After a time I felt faint from hunger and, while too 
weak from fright to seek food, I told Miss George that 
I would go into another room. I staggered along the floor 
until I reached a window, and fell, half fainting, through 
it. As I leaned there I witnessed sights that I pray God 
will never make another see. 

"Whirling by me, bodies, more than I could dare count, 
were crushed and mangled between a jumble of timbers 
and debris. Men, women and children went by, sinking, 



EXPERIENCES OF TWO WOMEN. 213 

floating, dashing on I know not where. I wanted to close 
my eyes, but I could not. I cried aloud and made an at- 
tempt to go to my friends, but I was exhausted and all I 
could do was to watch the terrible scenes. 

"Babies, oh, such pretty little ones, too, were carricvd on 
and on, gowned in dainty clothing, their eyes open, star- 
ing in mute terror above. Thank Providence they were 
dead. 

"I was partly blinded by tears, but I could still see 
through the mist. Little arms seemed to stretch toward 
me asking assistance and there I lay, half i)rostrated, too 
weak to lend assistance. 

"How it all ended I know not. I must have fainted for 
I awakened with 'We are saved, Alice,' ringing in my 
ears. 

"When I found we could get out of the city I declared 
I would go at all costs. I thought of home and my par- 
ents and I wanted to telegraph, just like thousands of 
others, that I was safe. 

"It was days before we could get away, however, and 
then it was in a most terrible confusion. Eighty-eight 
persons crowded on a small boat and started for Houston. 

"The day we left the militia was out in all its force. I 
could hear the sharj) report of a rifle and the wail of some 
soul as he paid the penalty for his thieving operations. 

"Later I saw the soldiers with their glistening rifles 
leveled at scores of men and saw them topple forward 
dead. Oh, they had to shoot those terrible beasts, for 
they w^ere robbing the dead. They groveled in blood, it 
seemed. 

"I saw with my own eyes the fingers of women cut off 
by regular demons in the search for jewels. The soldiers 
came and killed them and it was well. 



CHAPTER XII. 

Serious Danger from Fire — Scarcity of Boats to Carry People to the Main- 
land—Laborers Imported into Galveston — Untold Sufferings on Bolivar 
Island — Experience of a Chicago Man. 

ONE of the serious dangers whicli Galveston faced for 
many days was fire. Not a drop of rain had fallen during 
the two weeks succeeding the hurricane, and the hot 
winds and blistering suns made the wrecked houses and 
buildings so much tinder, piled mountain high in every 
direction. In nearly all parts of the city the fire hydrants 
were buried fifty feet, in some places a hundred feet deep 
under the wreckage, and as yet the water supply at best 
was only of the most meager kind. 

Galveston's fire department was small and badly crip- 
pled and would have been utterly powerless to stay the 
flames should they once start. There was no relief nearer 
than Houston, and that was hours away. 

In view of all the then existing conditions it was no 
wonder that the cry was: "Get the women and children 
to the mainland; anywhere off the island," nor was it a 
wonder that with one small boat carrying only 300 pas- 
sengers and making only two trips a day people fairly 
fought to be taken aboard. 

All during Sunday, September 16, fears were enter- 
tained by the authorities that even this service would be 
cut off and Galveston left without any means of getting 
to the mainland owing to the trouble with the owner of 
the boat. 

The sanitary conditions did not improve to any great 
extent. Dr. Trueheart, chairman of the committee in 
charge of caring for the sick and injured, was proceeding 

196 



INSANITY FOLLOWS SUFFERING. 193 

convent yard a young man, a brother of Mrs. Hakleman, 
battled with the wind and waters while clinging fast to 
the limb of the tree which swayed and bowed to the wind. 

He knew not where he was. He could but merely dis- 
cern the outlines of the academy building. While not 
knowing his chance of life or death he heard the plaintive 
cry of a child near by. Reaching out with one hand he 
caught the dress of a little tot, who, child-like, cried out, 
"Me swimming." The child had run the mill race buoyed 
by the force of the storm and had not had time to realize 
her peril. The young man in the tree was Mrs. Halde- 
man's brother, and the child which had come to him on 
the waves was Mrs. Haldeman's little girl. A few min- 
utes afterward a rescuing party was sent out from the 
convent in response to cries for help and found the young 
man and his niece and brought him to the sheltering in- 
stitution. The reunion of at least a part of the family 
followed a few minutes later. 

Dr. Truhart, chairman of the organization of physicians 
for the relief of the wounded and sick, states that there 
is absolutely no further necessity for trained nurses and 
physicians. 

SAVED AS BY A MIRACLE. 

Destitute save for a few personal effects carried in a 
small valise, and with nerves shattered by a week of hor- 
ror, Mr. and Mrs. C. A. Prutsman, with their two daugh- 
ters, 12 and 6 years old, reached Chicago Sunday morning, 
September 16, from the flood-swept district of Texas. 

"Yes, we were fortunate," said Mrs. Prutsman, as she 
leaned wearily back in a rocking chair and tenderly con- 
templated the two children at her side. "It seems to me 
just like an awful dream, and when I think of the hun- 



CHAPTER XIV. 

Twenty Thousand People Fed Every Day at a Cost of $40,000 — Incidents 
at the Relief Stations — Applicants and Their Peculiarities — Great 
Mortality Among the Negroes. 

TWENTY tliousand people were fed and cared for daily 
in Galveston for many days with the supplies which 
poured in from all parts of the country. This number 
was cut at least one-half about October 1. 

The estimated cost of the aid extended after the first 
week of suffering was |40,000 a day. The great bulk of 
the aid went to the 4,000 men at work cleaning up the 
wreckage, digging for bodies and cleaning the streets. 
Through them it went to their families. No able-bodied 
laboring man was allowed to escape the work, whether he 
needed aid or not, though most of them did. The business 
men in position to resume were allowed to attend to their 
stores, and their clerical forces were not interfered with. 

On Tuesday, September 18, the debris-hunting and 
street-cleaning work was put upon a cash basis, the wages 
being |1.50. Time had been kept from the beginning, 
though the records were not complete. All were paid for 
the full time they worked. This applied to those who 
had to be made to work at the point of a bayonet as well 
as those who volunteered their services. 

This aid was given in the form of orders for tools for 
mechanics, lumber for those who had homes they wished 
to repair, etc. Heretofore practically every able-bodied 
man had been made to work, and unless he worked he 
got no supplies. The first few days' wages consisted en- 
tirely of rations, which were given according to the num- 
ber and needs of the laborer's family, regardless of the 

216 



THRILLING INCIDENTS OF THE FLOOD. 217 

amount of work he accomplished. Since other supplies 
began coming in they had been added. 

The work of distribution was conducted systematically 
and with an apparent minimum of imposition and fraud. 
There was a. central committee, of which W. A. McVitie, 
a prominent business man, w^as chairman. Then there 
was a committee for each one of the twelve wards. As 
fast as goods or provisions arrived from the mainland 
they were placed in the central warehouse, from which 
the different ward chairmen requisitioned them, and they 
were taken to supply depots in the different wards. All 
day long there was a motley crowd around every one of 
these depots, negroes predominating at least two to one. 
Every applicant passed in review before the ward chair- 
man. 

"Ah want a dress fob ma sistah," said a big negress. 

"You're 'Manda Jones, and you haven't any sister liv- 
ing here," replied the chairman. 

"Fob de Lord, ah has; ah ain't 'Mandy Jones at all; we 
done live on Avenue N before de storm, and we los' every- 
thing." 

"Go out with this woman and find out if she has a sister 
who needs a dress," ordered the chairman to a commit- 
teeman. In this way check was kept on all the applicants 
for aid. 

At the Fifth ward distributing station clothing was 
given away the evening of the ITth. A negro woman, 
who had been refused a supply, went outside and by way 
of revenge pointed out different ones of her friends and 
neighbors whom she alleged were similarly unentitled. 

"Dat woman done los' nuthin' at all," she shrieked. "Ah 
did not los' nuthin' mahself and doan wan' nuthin'." 

"What's the trouble?" asked a bystander. 

An old negress who was lined up waiting her turn re- 



208 EXPERIENCES OF TWO WOMEN. 

"Before I had time to think I had to look, and saw 
floating in the water the body of an old woman, whose 
hair was shining in the starlight. A little farther on we 
saw a group of strange driftwood. 

"We looked closer and found it to be a mass of wooden 
slabs, with names and dates cut upon them, and floating 
on top of them were marble stones, two of them. 

"The graveyard, which has held the sleeping citizens 
of Galveston for many, many years, was giving up its 
dead. We pulled up at a little wharf in the hush of the 
starlight; there were no lights anywhere in the city except 
a few scattered lamps shining from a few desolate, half- 
destroyed houses. We picked our way up the street. The 
ground was slimy with the debris of the sea. 

"We climbed over wreckage and picked our way 
through heaps of rubbish. The terrible, sickening odor 
almost overcame us, and it was all that I could do to shut 
my teeth and get through the streets somehow. The sol- 
diers were camping on the wharf front, lying stretched 
out on the wet sand, the hideous, hideous sand, 
stained and streaked in the starlight with dark 
and cruel blotches. They challenged us, but the 
marshal took us through under his protection. At 
every street corner there was a guard, and every guard 
wore a six-shooter strapped around his waist. 

"I went toward the heart of the city. I do not know 
Avhat the names of the streets were or where I was going. 
I simply picked my way through masses of slime and 
rubbish which scar the beautiful wide streets of the once 
beautiful city. 

"They won't bear looking at, those piles of rubbish. 
There are things there that gripe the heart to see — a 
baby's shoe, for instance, a little red shoe, with a jaunty 
tasseled lace — a bit of a woman's dress and letters. 



DANGER AND WANT EVERYWHERE. 205 

There are so many sick people there that we don't know 
what to do. Can you send some one down?" 

The physician in charge said he would go at once. 

The man on horseback leaned over his saddle and tried 
to speak. Something in his face frightened me. I called 
to two doctors. They ran out and caught him. He was 
in a dead faint. When we had brought him to he laughed 
sheepishly. 

"I don't know what's the matter with me," he said. 
"Ain't never been taken this way before." 

The doctors looked at each other and smiled, but the 
nurses' eyes were full of tears. The man had not tasted 
food for thirty-six hours, and he had ridden fifty miles in 
the broiling Texas sun. 

More troops were called for on September 17 by Gov- 
ernor Sayers of Texas to relieve those on duty at Gal- 
veston who were worn out by their hard work. The re- 
sponse was prompt and hearty. 



220 THRILLING INCIDENTS OF THE FLOOD. 

the odor was very similar to that which afflicts Chicago 
at night when refuse is being burned at the stock yards, 
and no worse. Soon even the odor of the slime was gone. 
Every dumpcart in the city was at work. 

Every Galveston business man talked confidently of the 
future of the city, though many of the clerks announced 
their intention of going away as soon as they can accumu- 
late money enough. 

"I am not afraid of another storm," said a clerk in one 
of the principal stores. "But I'm sick and tired of the 
whole business." 

The Southwestern Telephone and Telegraph Company, 
which is a branch of the Erie system, early began to re- 
build its telephone system there. 

"This will take us three months, and in the meantime 
we will give no service save long-distance," said D. Mc- 
Reynolds, superintendent of construction. "We will in- 
stall a central emergency system the same as that in Chi- 
cago and put all wires under ground. We will employ 
500 men if necessary to do the work in ninety days. The 
company's losses in Texas are |300,000— 1200,000 here, 
160,000 at Houston and the rest at other points." 

Eesidents were greatly pleased at this announcement, 
as it showed the confidence of a foreign company in the 
future of Galveston. 

FIFTEEN HUNDRED NEGROES PERISHED AT 
GALVESTON. 

William Guest, a Pullman car porter, returned to Chi- 
cago from the storm-stricken district Monday, Septem- 
ber 17. He said: 

"I left Harrisburg night before last, and things then in 
the neighborhood were in a dreadful state. Galveston is 
about twenty miles distant, and the refugees were pour- 



THRILLING INCIDENTS OF THE FLOOD. 221 

ing in the direction of Houston in great numbers. Many 
well-to-do colored people have lost all they had. The Rev. 
W. H. Cain, a colored Episcopal minister, and his entire 
family were killed, and it was reported to me that Mrs. 
Cuney, the widow of Wright Cuney, was also lost, as well 
as a number of colored teachers employed in the public 
schools. At Houston relief committees have been organ- 
ized." 

The Rev. Mr. Cain was well known in Chicago, having 
preached several times from the pulpit of the St. Thomas 
Episcopal church on Dearborn near Thirtieth street. 

Cyrus Field Adams, publisher of the Appeal, Chicago, 
received a letter from Galveston from W. H. Noble, Jr., 
saying that about 1,500 Afro-Americans lost their lives 
in the storm, and that fully 10,000 were homeless. 

Cooped up in a house that collapsed after being car- 
ried along by a deluge of water, John Elford, brother of 
A. B. Elford, No. 269 South Lincoln street, Chicago, his 
wife and little grandson, met death in the flood during the 
Galveston storm. Milton, son of John Elford, was in the 
building with the family at the time, and was the only 
one of the many occupants including fifteen women known 
to have escaped. 

A. B. Elford, bookkeeper for A. M. Foster & Co., No. 
120 Lake street, was dumfounded when he received the 
first information of the disaster, for he had no idea of his 
brother being in Texas. John Elford was a retired farmer 
and merchant of Langdon, N. D. He had taken his family 
on a trip to old and New Mexico. 

On September 17 Mr. Elford received the following let- 
ter from Langdon, N. D. : 

"We have just received a letter from Milton. Father, 
mother, Dwight and Milton went to Galveston from Min- 
eral Springs, Tex., where they had previously been stop- 



204 DANGER AND WANT EVERYWHERE. 

people will, however, try and live on the mainland. At 
least 5,000 persons perished." 

THE FLOOD HORRORS DROVE THEM CRAZY. 

Three-fourths of the people who applied for relief were 
mentally dull. The physicians said with proper care 
most of them might be cured. 

A young girl was brought into the general relief sta- 
tion in Galveston on Friday night. The relief corps 
found her huddled up in an empty freight car, laughing 
and singing to amuse herself. The doctors said food and 
care were all she needed to restore her to reason. 

It was over a week after the flood before those from the 
outside really began to find out what the awful calamity 
was to the people in the desolated city. 

The first shock was wearing off, the long lists of dead 
and missing were getting to be an old story, and the sick 
and suffering were crawling into places of refuge. Some 
of them had been sleeping on the open prairies ever since 
the storm, most of them, in fact, men with broken arms 
and legs, sick women and ailing children. 

They would crawl out of the wreck of their homes and 
lie down on the bare ground to die. 

Relief parties found such as these every day and 
brought them into the hospitals as fast as possible. One 
relief party found 5,000 people in the vicinity of Galves- 
ton homeless, helpless, hopeless and tearless. 

It was a sight to cause a stone statue to weep. 

Monday, September 17, a man rode up to a hospital 
at Houston, and told the doctors he had just come from 
the Brazos bottoms. 

Said he: "The folks there are starving. There is not a 
pound of flour left and the children are crying for milk. 



DANGER AND WANT EVERYWHERE. 201 

dashed wildly below, Mrs. Davis clung to her 6-moiith-old 
babe with one arm, while with the other she held fast to 
her precarious haven of refuge. The minister held a baby 
of 18 months in the same manner, and while the little one 
cried for food he prayed. In other trees the family he 
had rescued from drowning found a precarious footing. 

When the night had passed and the water receded, 
wreckage, dead animals and the corpses of parishioners 
surrounded the devoted party. There was nothing to eat, 
and, nearly dead with exhaustion, the preacher and his 
little flock set out on foot to seek assistance. They were 
too weak to continue far and sank down on the plain, 
while Mr. Davis pushed on alone. Five miles away a 
farmhouse was found, partially intact, and securing a 
team Davis returned for his half-dead party. 

For two days they remained at the home of the hos- 
pitable farmer and then set out afoot to find a hamlet or 
make their way over the desert-like peninsula to Bolivar 
Point. In the heat of the burning sun they plodded on 
along the water front, subsisting upon a steer which they 
killed and devoured raw, until finally they came upon an 
abandoned and overturned sailboat high on the beach. 

With a united effort they succeeded in launching the 
boat and with improvised distress signals displayed man- 
aged to sail to Galveston. There, because of red tape, 
they were unable to secure clothing, although they were 
given a little food and transportation to Houston. Clad 
in an old pair of trousers, a tattered shirt and torn shoes, 
with his family in even worse plight, the circuit rider of 
the Patton Beach, Johnston's Bethel, Bolivar Point and 
High Island Methodist churches rode into Houston, dirty, 
weak and half-starved. Here the family were sent to a 
hospital and cared for. 

They were sent to Dickinson, Tex., where they had rel- 



224 THRILLING INCIDENTS OF THE FLOOD. 

ing, their ship having foundered from buffeting in the 
storm Wednesday, Thusday and Friday. The men drifted 
about on the sinking hulk, without food, water or shelter, 
and only by incessant pumping kept her afloat. 

"The seas were constantly sweeping the decks and the 
entire crew were lashed about the rigging or bulwarks. 
They w^ere ultimately rescued by the schooner Talisman 
of Gloucester, which landed them. One man perished 
from the exposure. The crew say the storm must have 
done awful damage on the banks. It seems certain many 
vessels could not escape the disaster when theirs, the fin- 
est of the fleet, succumbed." 

CLARA BARTON'S VIEW OF THE SITUATION. 

. Miss Clara Barton, head of the Red Cross Society, wrote 
of the situation at Galveston on September 18: 

"It would be diflicult to exaggerate the awful scene 
that meets the visitors everywhere. The situation could 
not be exaggerated. Probably the loss of life will exceed 
any estimate that has been made. 

"In those parts of the city where destruction was the 
greatest there still must be hundreds of bodies under the 
debris. At the end of the island first struck by the storm, 
and which was swept clean of every vestige of the splen- 
did residences that covered it, the ruin is inclosed by a 
towering wall of debris, under which many bodies are 
buried. The removal of this has scarcely even begun. 

"The story that will be told when this mountain of 
ruins is removed may multiply the horrors of the fearful 
situation. As usual in great calamities, the people are 
dazed and speak of their Losses with an unnatural calm- 
ness that would astonish those who do not understand it. 

"I do believe there is danger of an epidemic. But the 




DESTRUCTION OF HOMES BY THE GALVESTON STORM 




GALVESTON SUFFERERS AFLOAT ALL NIGHT 




A DESPERATE STRUGGLE FOR LIFE IN THE GALVESTON STORM 




A HERO SAVING HIS WIFE AND MOTHER IN THE STORM 




D 

PQ 

W 

GO 

D 
O 

H 

8 

Z 
Z 

o 

> 



O 




7: 
o 

< 
o 

H 

CO 



CO 

§ 
O 



E 
c/> 






I 

> 

H 
O 

I 
S 




h 
CO 

< 

3 

W 

h 

h 
< 

z 

o 

H 
w 

> 

< 



00 

3 
o 

< 

Q 
W 

n: 

H 

o 
o 



< 

< 

Z 

< 

h 
O 

o 




z 

o 

h 

W 
> 

< 



o 

CO 

D 
Q 




A SURVIVOR'S Dk£./\M Of- THE AWFUL GALVESTON NIGHT 




HEROIC MEN TRYING TO SAVE WOMEN AND CHILDREN IN THE 
GALVESTON STORM 



THRILLING INCIDENTS OF THE FLOOD. 241 

nervous strain upon the people, as they come to realize 
their condition, may be nearly as fatal. They talk of 
friends that are gone with tearless eyes, making no allu- 
sion to the loss of property. 

"A professional gentleman who called upon me this 
afternoon, a gentleman of splendid human sympathies 
and refinement, wore a soiled black flannel shirt, without 
a coat, and in apologizing for his appearance said in the 
most casual, light-hearted way: 'Excuse my appearance; 
I have just come in from burying the dead.' 

"But these people will break down under this strain, 
and the Red Cross is glad of the force of strong, compe- 
tent workers which it has brought to their relief. 

"Portions of the business part of the city escaped the 
greatest severity of the storm and are left partially intact. 
Thus it is possible to purchase here nearly all the supplies 
that may be wanting. Still, the Galveston merchants 
should be given the benefit of home demands. 

"Mayor Jones has ofi'ered to the Red Cross as headquar- 
ters the best building at his disposal. 

"Relief is coming as rapidly as the crippled transpor- 
tation facilities will admit. No one need fear, after seeing 
the brave and manly way in which these people are help- 
ing themselves, that too much outside aid will be given. 

"In reply to the question, 'What is most needed?' I 
would say: The most immediate needs are surgical dress- 
ings, the ordinary medical remedies, and delicacies for 
the sick." 

THEY READ THEIR OWN OBITUARIES. 

Reported dead several times, their obituaries printed 
in Galveston and Houston papers, Peter Boss, wife and 
son, formerly of Chicago, were found on the afternoon 



242 THRILLING INCIDENTS OF THE FLOOD. 

of September 18, after having passed through a most 
thrilling experience. 

Mr. and Mrs. Boss were the persons in search of whom 
Mrs. M. C. McDonald, No. 4501 Drexel boulevard, Chicago, 
went to Houston. 

Mrs. Boss' story of her experience in the disaster was 
a thrilling one. With her husband and son she was seated 
at supper in her home on. Twelfth street when the storm 
broke. She seized a handkerchief containing |2,000 from 
a bureau, and, placing it in her bosom, went with her hus- 
band and son to the second story. 

There they remained until the water reached them and 
they leaped into the darkness and the storm. They 
alighted on a. wooden cistern upon which they rode the 
entire night, clinging with one hand to the top of the 
cistern. Several times Mrs. Boss lost her hold, and fell 
backward into the water only to be drawn up again by 
her son. Timbers crashed against their queer boat, peo- 
ple on all sides of them were crushed to death or drawn 
into the whirling waters, but with grim perseverance the 
Boss family held on and rode the night out. 

Mrs. Boss was pushed off the cistern several times by 
her excited husband, but young Boss' presence of mind 
always saved her. With her feet crushed and bleeding, 
her clothing torn from her body and nearly exhausted, 
the woman was finally taken from her perilous position 
several hours after the hurricane started. 

Her companions were without clothing and were de- 
lirious. They were the only persons saved in the entire 
block in which they lived. They were taken to emergency 
hospitals, where they all tossed in delirium until Sunday. 
Mrs. Boss lost her money, and the family, wealthy a week 
before, was penniless. They had to appeal to the city 
authorities for aid, and got but little. 



THRILLING INCIDENTS OF THE FLOOD, 243 
TERRIBLE SCENES WITNESSED AT HOUSTON. 

The terrible scenes and happenings in Houston, Tex., 
the great amount of damage done and the intense suf- 
fering of the people there as a. result of the recent storm 
were vividly portrayed in a letter from Walter Scott of 
that city to his sister in Chicago, received September 15. 

"Much has been written about the damage done to Gal- 
veston," Mr. Scott wrote, "and I suppose things there are 
so terrible that little thought is given to other places. 
But right here in this city the damage is so great that 
one would not believe even time could repair it. Fur- 
thermore, the suffering here is indeed the greatest I ever 
heard of. Thousands of refugees are here from Galveston 
and other places and the city is being taxed to the limit 
to find places for all of them. 

"Wednesday morning the first contingent arrived. 
There were about eight hundred, and a more forlorn, de- 
jected and suffering lot of people never were brought to- 
gether. The sick were cared for in hospitals and private 
homes, and the greater number of the others were as- 
signed to places. But they apparently could not quiet 
themselves unless so fatigued and weak from loss of sleep 
and want of food that they practically fell down ex- 
hausted. 

"They roamed the streets with scarcely any clothing 
on them, men, women and children; all were hollow-eyed 
and sunken-cheeked and on the verge of despair. It isi 
terrible to realize how many families have been bro- 
ken up. 

"I have listened to harrowing tales until I am actually 
sick. The newspaper reports have not been exaggerated 
one iota. There is really nothing one can say which will 
express the situation. When I arrived at home from New 



244 THRILLING INCIDENTS OF THE FLOOD. 

Orleans at 10:30 o'clock Sunday night there wasn't a light 
in the city. Everything was in total darkness. It had 
been reported on the train that 7,000 lives had been lost 
at Galveston, but this we believed to be a. gross exaggera 
tion. 

"But I have changed my mind. I think now it is a con- 
servative figure. I groped my way through the darkness, 
stumbling over piles of debris, to my boarding place, and 
after no little difficulty succeeded in reaching my room. 
Upon lighting a match I found the place denuded of every- 
thing; the paper was stripped from the ceiling and was 
hanging in shreds from the walls. It was damp and cold. 
My landlady, hearing me, soon came in, and standing 
there in the darkness she gave me a harrowing account 
of what they passed through, the details of which the 
newspapers already have described. All the other people 
in the house had gone elsewhere, and she, her husband 
and myself were alone in the house. 

"That night I slept in a fairly dry bed in a tolerably 
dry room, but all the windows in the house had been 
blown out, and the building was so damp and cold that 
we were almost afraid to sleep there. Some of the rooms 
in the lower part of the building were still flooded. There 
wasn't a room in the entire house that had not been dam- 
aged, and the servants' house in the yard was almost 
completely wrecked. The ruins were toppled over and 
leaning against our next-door neighbor's house. 

"There is scarcely a structure in Houston which es- 
caped the fury of the storm. With the exception of the 
First Presbyterian, every church lost its steeple, and all 
were damaged to some extent. The streets for two or 
three days and even longer afterward were filled with 
debris — telephone and telegraph poles and wires, huge 



THRILLING INCIDENTS OF THE FLOOD. 245 

piles of bricks and timber, tin roofs and all kinds of mis- 
cellaneous things, such as furniture, trees, etc. 

"At Seabrook, a little seaside resort near here, only two 
homes were left standing." 

Walter S. Keenan, general passenger agent of the Gulf, 
Colorado and Santa Fe Railroad, arrived in Chicago Sep- 
tember 17 from Galveston. He was in the general office, 
which is connected with the Union station at Galveston, 
during the great storm and escaped without injuiy. He 
said the accounts of the Galveston disaster were in no 
way exaggerated. The debris, in some of the streets, he 
declared, was thirty feet high. He went to his office in 
the station Saturday morning and was compelled to re- 
main there until Sunday afternoon without a bite to eat. 



CHAPTER XV. 

Total Dead and Missing at Galveston and Yicinity, 8,661 — ^Five Million 
Dollars in Relief Necessary to Carry the Survivors Tlirougli the 
Fall and Winter to Spring. 

IT was given out from Galveston on Tuesday, September 
20, that so far as could be ascertained on that date, the 
loss of life in the great catastrophe was as follows : 

Identified 4,754 

Unidentified (recovered) 300 

Missing 2,000 

Total 7,054 

Dead in Central and Southern Texas 1,044 

High Island 563 

Total 1,607 

This makes the grand total of dead 8,661. 

The horrifying news reached Dallas late on the after- 
noon of September 18 that High Island, a seaside resort 
thirty miles northeast of Galveston, near the gulf shore 
and in the southwestern corner of Jefferson county, Tex., 
was entirely destroyed by the hurricane of the 8th inst. 

The place had about 1,000 residents, many of them vis- 
itors. 

Not a house was left standing and more than 400 dead 
bodies were found by relief and exploring parties. 

General Manager Spangler, of the Gulf and Interstate 
Railway, also received information on that date that more 
than thirty miles of that road had been entirely destroyed 
between Bolivar Point and High Island. 

246 



ESTIMATES OF THE LOSS. 247 

After looking over the situation carefully, the decision 
was arrived at, ten days succeeding the tragedy, that to 
put Galveston on her feet would require |5,000,000. Such 
was the opinion of Congressman Hawley, one of the city's 
representative business men. This did not mean that the 
sum mentioned would come anywhere near restoring the 
city to the condition before the storm. Far from it. 

Mr. Hawley did not so intend to be understood. He 
was asked : 

"What measure of relief will burn your dead, clean and 
purify your streets and public places, feed and clothe the 
living, and place your people where they can be self-sus- 
taining and on the way to regain what has been lost?" 

His reply was: "It will take |5,000,000 to relieve Gal- 
veston from the distress of the storm. At least that sum 
will be needed to dispose of the dead, to remove the ruins, 
and to do what is right for the living. I think that we 
should not only feed and clothe, but that we ought to have 
some means to help people who have lost everything to 
make a start toward the restoration of their homes. To 
do this will require every dollar of |5,000,000." 

There were then on the scene more nurses and physi- 
cians than required. The injured were recovering 
rapidly from their hurts, which were largely superficial. 
Many men and women were suffering from severe nervous 
shock and found it impossible to sleep. Food was coming 
in by boatload and carload faster than it could be han- 
dled, in such generous quantities that no further doubts 
were entertained about supplies. 

Estimates of the number dependent upon the relief com- 
mittees varied. Mayor Jones made it about 8,000, while 
other authorities put the number as high as 15,000. In the 
business center the streets had been cleaned and opened. 
All buildings still showed marks of wind and water, but 



248 ESTIMATES OF THE LOSS. 

goods were displayed and business was being transacted. 

The city was gradually assuming the bustling ante- 
flood appearance. The principal streets were electrically 
lighted. Stenches no longer assailed the nostrils, except 
in the outside circle of destruction, where much debris 
still remained untouched. Cremation of the dead was 
being pushed, but it was many days before the working 
parties got out the last of the bodies. 

The whole twenty-two miles' length of the island was 
submerged. 

The horrors of the western portion beyond the city lim- 
its were just being learned at San Luis. One hundred 
and eighty-one bodies were buried on September 17. Be- 
tween twenty and thirty bodies were counted among the 
piles of the railroad bridge between the island and Vir- 
ginia Point. In Kinkead's addition about 100 were lost, 
eighteen in one house. 

The farther the men worked in the Denver reservoir 
section the more numerous were the dead. Fires w^ere 
burning every 300 feet on the beach and along many of 
the streets. 

Mayor Walter C. Jones made a statement on that day 
of conditions and needs of Galveston people, basing his 
conclusions on the most reliable information which has 
come to him. 

Mayor Jones' statement was as follows: 

"It is almost impossible to speak definitely as yet of 
the needs of our people. We are broke, the majority of us. 
Galveston must have suffered, in my estimation, based 
upon all of the reports I have, |20,000,000. We now need 
money more than anything. 

"From the advices I have received I believe the ship- 
ments of disinfectants and food supplies now on the way 
will be sufficient to meet the immediate wants. By the 



ESTIMATES OF THE LOSS. 249 

time these are used we shall have regained our traus- 
portation facilities and stocks of everything, so that we 
can use money more advantageously. 

"It is impossible to state just how much money has 
reached us. We have received from the Governor, at 
Austin, 1100,000 in cash. That is from the general fund. 
Special contributions have come through the Chamber 
of Commerce, the Cotton Exchange and several other 
channels. We have between 1,500 and 3,000 men at work 
searching for bodies, clearing the streets and burning 
debris. Of this work, which ought to be done as fast as 
possible in the interest of the living, there is enough to 
keep 3,000 employed for forty days, although I believe 
we shall have the principal streets clear in ten days or 
two weeks. 

"I hesitate to say how much it will take to put Galves- 
ton where her people can care for themselves. Certainly 
15,000,000 will be a moderate estimate. There is not a 
building but is damaged, not a house of those left stand- 
ing but will have to be re-roofed, and few that will not 
need to be straightened on their foundations. If Gal- 
veston could get 110,000,000 it would be used judiciously 
to enable the people to become self-sustaining, 

"It is true Galveston is represented as being one of the 
wealthiest cities of the country. But our rich people had 
everything here and are crippled. The people of moderate 
means, who had homes and worked on salaries are, with 
scarcely an exception, ruined. The class dependent upon 
labor must be furnished something to do for wages or 
must suffer. 

"Dr. Lord and others, who have been among the people 
more than I have, say there are 8,000 helpless who must 
be fed and clothed and carried along for some time to 



250 ESTIMATES OF THE LOSS. 

come even after what might be called immediate needs 
have been met. 

"There is no contagious disease and we do not antici- 
pate any. But many are suffering from shock and ex- 
posure and from injuries received among the ruins. The 
City of Galveston, I am convinced, lost fully 5,000 per- 
sons. Down the island, outside of the city limits, were 
scattered between 2,000 and 3,000 persons. From the 
reports slowiy coming in it appears that most of these 
people lost their lives. The island in the sparsely settled 
parts seems to have been swept clean of habitations." 

The most motley crowd of United States regulars ever 
seen at attention lined up before Captain Rafferty the 
second Monday after the calamity. Battery O, First 
United States Artillery, the organization, was battered 
Battery O. No two men were dressed alike. Parts of uni- 
forms and clothes which bore no semblance to any uni- 
form were barely sufficient to cover nakedness, and in 
some cases there were bad rents, which showed the bare 
anatomy on dress parade. 

Battery O came out of the storm with a loss of 28 out of 
190 men, a loss seldom sustained in battle. One of these 
regulars floated fifty-two miles on a door, another was 
carried on an outhouse across the island and then across 
Galveston Bay. The survivors had been barracked in a 
shattered church since the Sunday after the storm. They 
were sent to San Antonio to be outfitted and armed. 

The officers and men lost everything and had to get 
clothes to cover them. 

James Stewart, of St. Louis, had undertaken to see that 
Captain Benton Kennedy's boys did not suffer. It was 
believed the grain men of St. Louis would take a personal 
interest in this case. Captain Kennedy came to Galves- 
ton from St. Louis, Mo., where he was well known. He 



ESTIMATES OF THE LOSS. 251 

was superintendent of Elevator A. His family consisted 
of his wife, tliree boys and two girls. In August Captain 
Kennedy bought a nice home and moved into it. When 
the storm made the house no longer safe he placed Henry 
and Edwin, little fellows of 15 and 9, on a raft at the door 
and went back for the others. The raft was carried half 
a mile and the boys were rescued. Captain Kennedy and 
Mrs. Kennedy and the sisters and one brother were lost. 

Adjutant-General Thomas Scurry said Monday even- 
ing, September 17: 

"In my opinion the situation is rapidly growing bet- 
ter; the people found themselves dazed and shattered as 
a result of the storm. While there was an abundance of 
energy remaining, as might have been naturally expected, 
a vast amount of it was not concentrated. It has been 
the policy of this office to concentrate energies. These 
efforts have been most gratifying. We have a large num- 
ber of men, possibly 2,000, at work. 

"What is most needed for Galveston now is money. 
Thousands of persons who owned their little homes have 
had them destroyed. They are now dependent upon the 
generosity of the outside world and upon the Relief Com- 
mittee to prepare for the rigors of winter and to refurnish 
their homes with necessities. No man who has not been 
an eye-witness to the desolation which has swept over 
this city can have the faintest conception of what it' 
means. 

"Galveston lies on an island about a mile wide from 
north to south, the city covering about six miles of this 
east and west. Along the southern side for a distance of 
two to five blocks every house has been absolutely demol- 
ished. Such of these unfortunates as were not drowned 
are now penniless." 



252 ESTIMATES OF THE LOSS. 

AN EYE-WITNESS TELLS OF THE STORM. 

A graphic description of the storm was that given by 
R. L. Johnson, a prominent citizen of Galveston. He 
said: 

"I reached home after wading in water to my neclv and 
made immediate preparations to take my wife and three 
children where I felt their safety would be assured. The 
water began to rise so rapidly that in fifteen minutes we 
were driven to the second floor, and it was then impossible 
to leave the house. At this time Neighbor KelPs house, 
adjoining mine, went down with husband, wife and chil- 
dren. Then down Avenue S came two small cottages, 
which struck a telegraph pole and stopped directlj' in 
front of my house. I heard children crying and women 
screaming. The words, *0 God, save me,' I can still hear 
ringing in my ears. 

"Another cottage came sweeping by and carried away 
the gallery of my house. The Artigan, Henman and Pen- 
nings houses, carrying eighteen persons, floated by and I 
could see the struggling forms in the water. 

"I was expecting it was our turn next. I kissed my 
wife and children good-by, and as I did so my eldest boy, 
a lad of 15, said: 'Father, it is not our time to die,' Then 
came the piercing scream of a woman, followed by a 
crash, and another house turned over on its side and was 
driven past by the wind and flood. 

"The current was running like a mill race. The water 
was already on our second floor, and the waves kept 
knocking us about until we were completely exhausted. 
Then the wind went, and the water began to fall. I looked 
about and could not see a house for two blocks; there 
was nothing but a flood of water in every direction. In 



ESTIMATES OF THE LOSS. 253 

the morning we found our house had been moved about 
ten feet and deposited upon the sand.'* 

GALVESTON AGAIN MADE A PORT. 

''Issue bills of lading to Galveston and through Galves- 
ton to other points." 

On September 17, up and down the International and 
Great Northern, the Missouri, Kansas and Texas, the 
Santa Fe and their connections the wires were carrying 
the official information that Galveston would be a ter- 
minal, a sure enough port, as soon as the traffic could 
reach there. The Vice-Presidents and General Managers 
and General Agents had mastered the railroad wreck, 
they had set the time for the running of the first train 
into Galveston, and that time was Friday, September 21. 
By that date, according to the engineers, the temporary 
bridge would be ready for use. It was ready to the 
minute. 

The news that the roads had declared readiness to 
accept freight for Galveston and through Galveston was 
received by business men as tidings of great joy. It add- 
ed greatly to the improvement of spirit. For several days 
after the storm the prediction was that no trains would 
enter Galveston under thirty days and that the time 
might be sixty days. 

Equally exhilarating with the action of the railroad 
men was the action taken by Secretary Bailey, of the 
Wharf Company, that exportation of wheat would be re- 
sumed to-morrow morning. The machinery of Elevator 
A was started up and was successful. Monday afternoon 
the wharf was cleared. A steamship was brought under 
the spout and loaded. James Stewart, Mr. Orthwein and 
other St. Louis grain men said almost the entire stock of 
wheat would be saved. 



254 ESTIMATES OF THE LOSS. 

The number of persons who left Galveston up to Sep- 
tember 17, it was stated at relief headquarters, was over 
8,000, of whom about 5,000 were then in Houston being 
cared for. Others had gone on into the interior of the 
State or to other States. The number coming up on the 
trains showed no falling off. 

New arrangements made at Galveston enabled people 
to get out without so much red tape and they took ad- 
vantage of the opportunity to do so. Governor Sayers 
had now taken charge of the relief work here at all points, 
and money was being given out where needed, more than 
provisions and clothing. 

SWELLING THE RELIEF FUND. 

On September 18 Chicago had raised over |100,000 for 
the Galveston sufferers; New York nearly |300,000; St. 
Louis nearly |70,000, and other cities the following 
amounts: 

Boston 132,700 

Philadelphia 28,320 

Pittsburg 27,108 

New Orleans 26,100 

San Francisco 18,000 

Kansas City 17,000 

Louisville 14,000 

Milwaukee 14,046 

Baltimore 15,000 

Denver 13,000 

Minneapolis 12,000 

Newark, N. J 12,000 

Cleveland 9,345 

Memphis 9,123 

Cincinnati 9,000 

Colorado Spr'uf, 7,200 



ESTIMATES OF THE LOSS. 255 

St. Paul 17,000 

Topeka, Kan 5,438 

Charleston, S. 6,000 

Omaha, Neb 6,212 

Los Angeles 5,184 

Detroit, Mich 5,190 

Indianapolis 4,000 

Helena, Mont 4,108 

Johnstown, Pa 3,000 

Columbus, Ohio 3,100 

South Bend, Ind 1,985 

Springfield, 111 2,000 

Portland^ Ore 2,100 

Lexington, Ky 2,098 

The LTnited States embassy at Berlin, Germany, cabled 
$500 to Governor Sayers on September 17. 

General J. B. Vinet, president of the Red Cross Society, 
State of Louisiana, New Orleans, received on Tuesday 
morning, September 18, a telegram from Miss Clara Bar- 
ton, who was at Galveston, as follows: 

"Find greatest immediate needs here are surgical 
dressings, usual medicines and delicacies for the sick. No 
epidemic, but many people are worn out with suffering- 
and exertion who need tender care and proper food. 

"CLARA BARTON." 

Building material was needed at Galveston but its de- 
livery was necessarily slow, owing to the lack of rail com- 
munication with the mainland. 

There were still many pitiable cases of destitution. 
Many half-demented persons positively refused to leave 
their wrecked homes and as persistently refused to ac- 
cept offers of relief extended them. In several instances 
pareutvS who had lost children still occupied ruins of their 



256 ESTIMATES OF THE LOSS. 

former home and the surroundings had brought them to 
a state of mental and physical collapse. 

The number who had gone insane as a result of their 
experiences will probably never be known. In every lot 
of refugees sent out of the stricken city there were many 
insane men and women. The victims first made light of 
their losses, and laughed immoderately when telling of 
the death of relatives in the flood. It was a very short 
step from this to uncontrollable madness. 

The state militia companies did splendid work in pa- 
trolling the city after the storm, and many of the men 
were of the belief that they should be allowed to return to 
their homes and troops sent from other parts of the state 
to fill their places. 

The fears of an epidemic were allayed by the presence 
and the distribution of medicines and disinfectants and 
therefore a feature which would undoubtedly have had 
the effect of causing many to seek succor elsewhere, was 
eliminated from the situation. 

GOVERNOR SAYERS SENDS HIS THANKS. 

Governor Sayers, of Texas, sent out the following ex- 
pression of thanks on behalf of the sufferers in Galveston 
and as the representative of the people of his state: 

"In behalf of the people of Texas I desire to express my 
acknowledgment to the people of the United States for 
the ready and generous response they have made in com- 
ing to the aid of our afflicted people. The number of 
deaths, the amount of destitution, and the loss of prop- 
erty is far greater than had been anticipated. 

"The Secretary of the Navy has placed the revenue cut- 
ter Galveston at m^^ disposal, and I have in turn placed it 
at the disposal of the mayor of Galveston. The addition 
of this cutter to the boats already loaned by the Federal 



ESTIMATES OF THE LOSS. 257 

government will give us five boats at Galveston to handle 
supplies and passengers to and from the mainland, and I 
anticipate that their presence there will relieve the situa- 
tion materially. 

'The city authorities at Galveston are in full control, 
and every effort is being made to bury the dead, to remove 
the debris, and to sanitate the city. Contributions of the 
most liberal character are reaching me, and I shall see 
that the money is used to the best advantage for the suf- 
ferers and that there shall be no waste of the magnificent 
contributions coming from the free hands and generous 
hearts of a sympathetic people." 

No idea could possibly be formed as to the frightful 
crush of railroad trains bearing relief supplies in and 
around Houston and Texas City, the latter being but six 
miles from Galveston, but separated from it by a stretch 
of water. Owing to the small number of vessels plying 
between Texas City and Galveston the shipment of sup- 
plies to the latter was necessarily aggravatingly slow. 

GREWSOME SCENES AND HARROWING INCI- 
DENTS. 

Grewsome scenes and soul-harrowing incidents of the 
time immediately following the great gale in Galveston 
were graphically portrayed in a letter from a young wom- 
an caught on the island in the awful storm. It was writ- 
ten by Miss Nellie Cary to her parents, who live at 5408 
Lake avenue, Chicago. Miss Cary had been home on a 
vacation for several weeks and left Chicago for Galves- 
ton the Tuesday evening before the hurricane, reaching 
the doomed city just in time to participate in the terrible 
experience. Her letter follows: 

"Galveston, Wednesday, September 12. — Dearest Pa- 



258 ESTIMATES OF THE LOSS. 

rents: Have not had a minute to write and cannot collect 
my thoughts to tell you of the horrible disaster down 
here. Thousands of dead in the streets — the gulf and bay 
strewn with dead bodies. The whole island demolished. 
Not a drop of water — food scarce. If help does not reach 
us soon there will be great starvation for everybody. 

"The dead are not being identified at all — they throw 
them on drays and take them to barges, where they are 
loaded like cordwood, and taken out to sea to be cast into 
the waves, now peaceful, which were so hungry for them 
in their anger. 

"I was at the wharf this morning for a short time and 
saw three barges loaded with their grewsome freight. 
The bodies are frightful, every one nearly nude. God 
alone knows who they are. 

"The bay is full of dead cattle and horses, together with 
human corpses, blistering in the hot sun. It will be im- 
possible to remove the dead from the debris for weeks — 
the whole island is frightful. I saw thirty-eight bodies 
taken from one house. Every one is striving to get the 
bodies buried for fear of the plague. 

"I never expected to get out alive, but thank God, not 
one of us was killed. We were driven back to the stairs, 
and up, stair by stair, by the great waves. The wind was 
blowing over a hundred miles an hour, and the rain fell 
in torrents. Never shall I forget the sight as darkness 
settled upon us. I thought of you, papa and mamma, and 
prayed that you might be comforted. Our roof is now 
gone, the walls have fallen around us, but we still have a 
floor and — I can't tell you, it is too horrible. 

"I was nearly drowned getting home from the office at 
4 o'clock Saturday afternoon. Mrs. Whitman is almost 
crazy and is in a dangerous condition. I have lost every- 



ESTIMATES OF THE LOSS. 259 

thing; am now wearing clothes borrowed from those who 
were more fortunate. The stench is terrible. 

"Thousands of horses and cattle without owners are in 
the most pitiable condition imaginable; not a drop of 
water for them to drink since Saturday morning. And the 
people — I wonder that everybody is not mad at the hor- 
rors. No account can exaggerate it. It is absolutely nec- 
essary that everybody in the United States do what they 
can. 

"Nearly all our help at Clark & Courts are drowned — 
Mr. Hansinger, his whole family, our other bookkeeper 
and a number of the girls. The town is under martial law 
to protect it from the mob. Last night a negro was ar- 
rested with ten fingers in his pockets, with valuable rings 
on them. Mr. Fayling, at our house, is in command of 
the protective force. They have had to shoot many to 
keep the horrible ghouls in control. Eddie Rogers is next 
in command, and is doing noble work. I have done what 
I could to help the dying and wounded. 

COMPLETE RUIN FOR MILES. 

"We were on the highest point of ground in Galveston. 
That is all that saved us. For blocks and blocks, reach- 
ing into miles, not a house remains; not a building but is 
completely demolished — houses just torn board from 
board and piled up. I have climbed over wreckage forty 
feet high in the streets to get to places. I think w^e were 
more fortunate than any one else in town. I think not 
one was killed, though our escape was narrow. With the 
exception of Mrs. Whitman all were calm, though I 
reckon everybody quaked inside — I know I did. 

"Thursday. — Am well. Had something to eat this 
morning, and a little rainwater. Coffee is plenty, but 



260 ESTIMATES OF THE LOSS. 

water scarce. To-day the flesli slips oft" the bodies as they 
take hold to drag them from the ruins. They are piling 
them in great heaps now and burning them. The horrors 
multiply. I have seen men shot down in the streets by 
the soldiers. The stench is untold. Last night the awful 
smell kept us awake although we were utterly exhausted. 
It fills your throat and mouth, and makes your head 
ache so. 

COMPARATIVELY FEW CHILDREN LEFT. 

"The horrible experience* it will take years to tell and 
more than a lifetime to forget. If you could be here you 
would feel that your anxiety was nothing. It is so pitia- 
ble to see husbands, with a look of despair in their eyes, 
searching for their wives and children; wives for their 
loved ones; and, most pitiable of all, the comparatively 
few children — although they are enough, God knows, to 
be left orphans and homeless — looking into every one's 
face with frightened, appealing eyes. It is heartrending. 

"Now I am much better off. I am safe, so please don't 
worry. I hope to hear from you soon. 

"Best love and kisses to both from 

"NELLIE." 



CHAPTER XVr. 

Galveston's Inhabitants Refuse to Heed the Lessons Taught by Si^eir 
Experiences — Carelessness in Failing to Provide Against the Recur- 
rence of Catastrophes. 

ALTHOUGH Galveston had been struck three times 
with floods and hurricanes even this experience was not 
enough to convince the residents that it might happen 
again. Only a few of the more cautious had any idea 
after the last disaster of taking steps to prevent its repe- 
tition. Asked if anything would be done to make future 
floods impossible they might probably quote the old saw : 
"Lightning never strikes in the same place twice," and 
seem to think that settled it. In the next sentence they 
would compare the damage done in the floods of 1875 and 
] 886 with this latest disaster. 

"No," said E. M. Hartrick, assistant United States en- 
gineer, "the people of Galveston will go on living in fan- 
cied security just as they did before. The plan to put a 
dike around the city is perfectly feasible and so is a series 
of jetties. I think the good old Holland plan is the best. 
The city doesn't need to be raised. I was six years city 
engineer of Galveston, and following the storm of 1886 
drew plans for a dike ten feet high and extending all 
around the island except on the north side. There the 
wharves were to be raised and form the dike. 

"Galveston gave this plan consideration, and there is 
a map of the city in existence which shows it with a dike 
surrounding it. The legislature gave authority to bond 
the city, but it was some months after the flood wlien this 
had been secured, and the people said, 'Oh, we'll never get 
another one,' and they didn't build." 

The construction by the government of two jetties, one 

: 31 



262 



LESSONS TAUGHT BY THE FLOOD. 



eight miles long extending out southeast for the purpose 
of making a narrower and deeper channel for boats com- 
ino- into Galveston harbor, made the necessity of remedial 
work more apparent, but nothing was done. In the last 
storm, the southwesterly one of the jetties pocketed the 
water and carried it up over the southeastern end of the 
island. 

This was the place where whole blocks of buildings 
were literally washed away, leaving hardly enough of the 
foundations to indicate that buildings ever stood there. 
In that part of the city the water rose to a depth of fifteen 
feet in the streets. Had the houses demolished by waves 
and swept away by wind not formed into a great jam sim- 
ilar to a log jam, but extending along the south shore of 
the island for seven miles, this enormous body of water 
would have swept over the entire island and the number 
of dead would have been quadrupled. 

"It formed a dike," said Engineer Hartrick, in calling- 
attention to this feature of the flood, "and had it not been 
for that dike we might not any of us be here now." 

According to Mr. Hartrick, Galveston had the wrong 
style of architecture for a gulf town. Its newer buildings 
were built on the northern plan with balloon frames, and 
poorly adapted to stand a blow. 

"This storm was a hurricane," he said, "just such as 
they have in the West Indies every summer, but which 
we have here perhaps once in a hundred years. Still we 
never know when one may come again, and we should 
build our houses accordingly." 

Colonel Davidson, a member of the relief committee, 
had given some time in the past to consideration of 
projects to prevent inundations. He favored the jetty 
system, but, like Engineer Hartrick, said nothing would 
ever be done. 



LESSONS TAUGHT BY THE FLOOD. 263 

"You never heard of a man wanting an umbrella when 
it wasn't raining, did you?" he asked. "What we want is 
not to keep all the water out. We want the waves to 
break their force before they rise on to the island. It 
was the force of the great waves which wrecked the 
houses." 

The work of extracting bodies from the mass of wreck- 
age continued. Tuesday, September 18, over 400 bodies 
were taken out of the debris which lined the beach front. 
With all that had been done to recover bodies buried be- 
neath or pinned to the immense drift, the work had 
scarcely started. There was no time to dig graves and 
the putrefying flesh, beaten and bruised beyond identifi- 
cation, was consigned to the flames. Volunteers for this 
grewsome work came in fast. Men who had avoided the 
dead under ordinary conditions were working with a 
vigorous will and energy in putting them away. 

Under one pile of wreckage Tuesday afternoon twenty 
bodies were taken out and cremated. In another pile a 
man pulled out the remains of two children and for a 
moment gazed upon them, then mechanically cast them 
into the fire. They were his own flesh and blood. As 
they slowly burned he watched them until they were con- 
sumed, then resumed his work assisting others in remov- 
ing other bodies. 

A large force of men was still engaged in removing the 
dead from Kurd's lane, located about four miles west of 
the city. At this point the water ran to a height of four- 
teen feet, and hung up in trees and fences were the bodies 
of men, women and children, which were being collected 
and cremated as fast as possible. 

On the mainland the searching for and cremating of 
bodies that either perished or found lodgment there was 
being prosecuted vigorously. 



264 LESSONS TAUGHT BY THE FLOOD. 

The situation throughout the country extending from 
Bolivar to High island was possibly worse than in any 
other section of the mainland. 

Clara Barton, president of the Red Cross Society, is- 
sued an appeal on September 18 to the American people 
for money and supplies for the sick and wounded. Her 
idea was to spend some of the money with local mer- 
chants wherever practicable. 

Chairman Davidson of the relief committee stated that 
the greatest sufferers from the storm were the people of 
limited means who owned homes near the beach. There 
were hundreds of these people who owned mortgaged 
lots and had homes constructed by the loan companies 
and though their property was swept away the loan com- 
panies were protected by liens. 

Mr. Davidson advised that a fund be raised for people 
who had suffered in this way, that they might be able to 
restore what took them years to accumulate and was 
taken from them in a single night. 

The resources of the numerous sub-relief stations scat- 
tered throughout the city were taxed to their utmost ca- 
pacity, and long lines of people awaited their turns for 
provisions and clothing. 

At Texas City a force of deputy United States marshals 
under Marshal Grant was guarding the entrance to Gal- 
veston and keeping back all people who could show no 
good reason for desiring to go there. People were daily 
leaving the city, a majority being women and children. 
The city was still under martial law, and remained so for 
weeks. Idlers and sight-seers who eluded the guards on 
the mainland upon their arrival were pressed into the 
street service. There was no place for a man who would 
not work. It was work or go to jail, and they generally 
went to jail. 



LESSONS TAUGHT BY THE FLOOD. 265 

GOVERNOR SAYERS IN A HOPEFUL MOOD. 

"I look for the rebuilding of Galveston to be well un- 
der way by the latter part of this week," said Governor 
Sayers, of Texas, on September 18, at Austin, the state 
capital. "The work of cleaning the city of unhealthful 
refuse and burying the dead will have been completed by 
that time, and all the available labor in the city can be 
applied to its rebuilding. 

"If the laboring people of Galveston will only get to 
work in earnest prosperity will soon again smile on the 
city. Arrangements have been made to pay all the labor- 
ers working under the direction of the military authori- 
ties |1.50 and rations for every day they have worked or 
will work. An account has been kept of all work done 
and no laborer will lose one day's pay. 

"The money and food contributions coming from a gen- 
erous people have been a great help to the people of Gal- 
veston, as it has relieved them of the necessity of 
spending their money to support the needy, and it can 
now be applied to the improvement of their own property 
and putting again on foot their business enterprises. 

"Five dollars a day is being offered to the mechanics 
who will come to Galveston, and, with the assurance from 
reputable physicians that there is no extraordinary dan- 
ger of sickness, outside laborers will flock to Galveston 
and before many days a new city will rise on the storm- 
swept island. 

"The telegraph and telephone companies and railroads 
have been exceedingly generous since the gTeat calamity. 
They have not only given money, but everything has been 
transported to that city free of charge, while those desir- 
ing to get away from the harrowing scenes of Galveston 
have been transported free. The people of Texas will 



266 LESSONS TAUGHT BY THE FLOOD. 

long remember with grateful hearts the kindness of 
these companies. 

"It is now an assured fact that trains will be running 
into Galveston this week, and with uninterrupted com- 
munication with the outside world Galveston should 
soon assume her normal condition." 

SAD SIGHTS AT VIRGINIA POINT. 

When the relief train reached Virginia Point, which 
is on the mainland, opposite Galveston, it was found that 
of those who survived the flood and hurricane the ma- 
jority was severely injured. Most of them were bruised 
and maimed, presenting a pitiful sight, their limbs lac- 
erated and bleeding. All bemoaned the fate of those dear 
to them. 

Many of the dead — and the beach was strewn with 
corpses — had their faces and heads mutilated so that it 
was almost impossible to learn the names of those who 
found their last resting-place in the crude graves hur- 
riedly dug. A headboard was placed on the grave in 
every instance, giving as nearly as possible age and ac- 
curate description. 

It was found necessary in many instances to bury three 
and four in one grave. 

Those who survived the wreck were homeless and had 
had nothing to eat since Saturday. As most of them 
were injured it was not possible for them to organize a 
movement on their part. Life sustenance was furnished 
these survivors in order that they might not swell the 
list of dead. 

Most of the bodies found in and around the vicinity of 
Virginia Point were supposed to have been washed in- 
land from Galveston. 



CHAPTER XVII. 

Galveston's Storm Flies Over the United States and Does Great 
Damage — Many Lives Lost — It Finally Disappears in the Atlantic 
Ocean. 

WHEN the hurricane was through with Galveston and 
central and southern Texas it sped north through Mis- 
souri, Kansas and Nebraska — its path being 300 miles in 
width — and then turning toward the east, or slightly 
northeast, crossed northern Iowa, southern Minnesota, 
southern Wisconsin, southern Michigan, northern Illi- 
nois, northern Indiana, northern Ohio, northern New 
York and southern Canada, finally disappearing in the 
Atlantic ocean, creating wreck and havoc wherever it 
went. It caused great losses of life and property in New- 
foundland and destroyed many vessels off the eastern 
coast of the United States 

The following dispatches show how widespread was its 
fury : 

Buffalo, September 12. — Immense damage was done 
here and at other lake ports by the Texas storm 
which traveled with great violence down Lake Erie last 
night. Reports from Crystal Beach, a summer resort on 
the Canadian side of Lake Erie, say that every dock has 
been destroyed, and all the boats of the Buffalo Canoe 
Club, together with several large seagoing yachts an- 
chored there, were completely wrecked. 

In this city the wind attained a velocity of seventy-two 
miles an hour, and seemed to regain some of the power 
which it exhibited in wrecking Southern cities. Reports 
of property loss and fatalities have come in. 

St. Joseph, Mich., September 12. — The steamer Law- 

267 



268 THE PATH OF THE STORM. 

rence arrived here at 1 o'clock this afternoon from 
Milwaukee. She left that place at 8 o'clock yesterday 
morning, and the captain reports a fearful voyage. The 
captain's wife was here from Milwaukee and was on the 
dock waiting to meet her husband when the boat touched 
the dock. The meeting between the two was affecting. 
All this morning anxious watchers waited on the bluffs 
at the mouth of the river for a glimpse of the missing 
boat. Many people had friends among the passengers 
and crew, and as the morning hours wore on their anxiety 
became intense. 

Cleveland, September 12. — As a result of the fu- 
rious gale which swept over the lake region last night 
telegraph and telephone lines were prostrated in all di- 
rections from this city to-day. During the height of the 
storm the wind reached a velocity of sixty mile,: an hour. 
To-day the storm is subsiding, the wind having dropped 
to twenty-six miles an hour. 

Up to noon to-day the big passenger steamers City of 
Erie and the Northwest, which left Buffalo last evening 
for this port, have not been heard from. They were due 
here at 6 o'clock this morning. The passenger steamer 
State of Ohio, due here about the same hour from Toledo, 
had not arrived at noon. 

The wind blew sixty miles an hour across Lake Erie, 
but the warnings had been so thorough that few vessels 
were caught unprepared. The steamer Cornell of the 
Pittsburg Steamship Company's fleet lost her smokestack 
off Fairport. Her barge anchored, but both came into 
port later. The Buffalo passenger boat has not yet ar- 
rived, having been in shelter at Long Point during the 
worst of the blow. 

Detour, Mich., September 12. — In the storm yester- 
day the schooner Narragan tt, stranded near Cockburn 



THE PATH OF THE STORM. . 21)9 

island, was washed off the rocks, and shipping suffered 
greatly. 

Sault Ste. Marie, Mich., September 12. — The wind 
reached a velocity of thirty miles an hour from the 
northwest at midnight, the storm being accompanied by 
considerable rain. Many vessels were lost. 

Amhertsburg, Ont., September 12. — The tail end of 
the Galveston storm struck this section with great 
force about 11 o'clock last night and continued until early 
this morning. The loss to shipping is heavy. 

Kingston, Ont., September 12. — The Canadian steam- 
er Albacore was driven ashore at 7 o'clock this 
morning, east of the life-saving station. The crew was 
saved. The wind is blowing a gale from the west, and 
shipping on Lake Ontario suffered seriously, many sailors 
being drowned. 

South Haven, Mich., September 12. — The storm did 
much damage to the docks here last night. Several 
vessels are reported lost. 

Port Huron, Mich., September 12. — The wind blew a 
gale until 11:30 last night. Three small schooners 
which left here bound for Sand Beach were wrecked. 

The gale passed over Chicago September 11 and at- 
tained a velocity early in the afternoon of seventy-two 
miles an hour, destroyed many lives in the city and neigh- 
borhood, did great damage to property on the land and 
wrecked several vessels on the lakes. 

The wind was fitful and blew in gusts. Its advance was 
met with frequent lulls and interruptions. An embank- 
ment of dark, ominous clouds rose steadily in the west. 
At first it was broken by an occasional rift which revealed 
the blue sky. But as the cloud bank rose it darkened and 
rolled over the plains toward Chicago with increasing 
speed. At 3 o'clock all the blue patches of sky had dis- 



270 THE PATH OF THE STORM. 

appeared, the heavens had assumed a forbidding look 
and the lake rolled. The increased violence of the storm 
carried everything before it. No one disputed its rights 
to the streets, and it blew down wires innumerable, badly 
crippling the telegraph and telephone service. 

The Western Union's fifty-two New York lines were all 
down. 

From Chicago the storm continued its progress across 
Lake Huron, but was steadily diminishing in intensity. 

The storm's velocity diminished after leaving Texas, 
but increased with wonderful rapidity after reaching the 
lake region. The wind reached the greatest velocity at 
Chicago it had attained since leaving Galveston. 



CHAPTER XVlll, 

The World Not So Heartless as Supposed — People Hhe (ilenerously to 
Aid the Suflfering — A Social Pheuomenou — Value of United States 
Weather Bureau. 

PERHAPS the world is not so bad as it has been painted, 
or so heartless and indifferent as some pessimists would 
have us believe. Ordinarily men and women have enough 
to do in attending to their OAvn affairs, expecting others, 
of course, to do the same, and consequently they pay 
small attention to what is going on around them; but 
when their hearts are really touched they drop everything 
and rush to the rescue of the afflicted. 

So it was in the case of Galveston. 

The catastrophe at Galveston served to bring conspic- 
uously into notice the best and worst sides of human na- 
ture, which is always the common result of all appalling 
disasters. 

The people of that afflicted city were suddenly over- 
whelmed by the almost unprecedented fury of the ele- 
ments. Thousands were killed and injured. Thousands 
more lost their homes and places of business. They were 
suffering with hunger and menaced with pestilence. All 
were brought to a common level by dangers of every de- 
scription, death in its most awful forms, and an outlook 
of terrible uncertainty. 

And yet in the midst of all this ruin and suffering they 
were harassed by thugs and thieves and ghouls in human 
shape, who looted property, assaulted citizens vv^ho re- 
sisted them, and despoiled and disfigured the dead in a 
shockingly savage manner to secure rings and other 
jewels. Devoid of any feeling of sympathy or pity, they 

271 



272 GENEROSITY OF THE WORLD. 

seized upon this awful disaster as an opportunity to en- 
rich themselves. As soon, however, as the authorities 
could recover from the first shock of the disaster the city 
was placed under martial law, and the troops patrolling 
the island did not hesitate to kill every one of the vandals 
caught in the commission of his infamous work. Public 
opinion sustained this prompt style of punishment. It 
was a species of Southern lynching to which no objection 
was ever raised. 

The disaster also brought into prominence the greed 
and mercenary passion of human nature. A clique of 
ravenous wretches, taking advantage of the fact that the 
city of Galveston was cut off from bridge communication 
with the mainland, conspired to secure control of the 
transportation facilities by water, and charged extortion- 
ate prices even to those who were seeking to carry relief 
to the suffering people. 

Never was a more inhuman trust organized. 

Again, all the fresh provisions in the city were ruined, 
leaving only a few canned and dried articles which were 
available for food. The owners of these, bent upon mak- 
ing personal profit out of the necessities of their fellow- 
citizens, pushed up the prices, raising bread to 60 cents a 
loaf and bacon to 50 cents a. pound. 

The mayor of Galveston, however, proved himself equal 
to the emergency, confiscated the food supply, reduced 
the prices to a reasonable rate, and compelled the owners 
of schooners and small craft to put down their prices also. 

This was the dark side of human nature, but the picture 
had its bright side also. The news of the awful disaster 
had hardly appeared in the public prints before tens of 
thousands of helping hands were busy collecting relief. 
The Chief Executive of the nation, the Governors of 
States, and the mayors of cities issued their appeals to 



GENEROSITY OF THE WORLD. 273 

the people, whose sympathies were already aroused and 
whose hearts aud hands were enlisted generously and en- 
thusiastically in the work of relief. 

Far-off countries sent their offerings; every city and 
town in the world where Americans live contributed; 
and crowned heads hastened to cable sympathy, together 
with more substantial evidences of their kindly feeling. 

Without delay of any kind, instantly and sponta- 
neously, the machinery of charity began its work. The 
people of the North might differ radically from the people 
of the South in many ways, but in the presence of such a 
dreadful visitation of nature, involving suffering and 
death, the brotherhood of man asserted itself and all 
things else were forgotten. Only the higher and nobler 
attributes of human nature assert themselves. 

Private individuals, business houses, great corpora- 
tions, municipal, state and national government vied with 
each other, as they did w^hen fire swept over Chicago and 
the flood overwhelmed Johnstown, in expediting relief 
to the storm-ruined people of Texas. 

Day by day trains sped to Galveston from every part 
of the country, loaded with supplies, and the telegraph 
wires carried orders for money, testifying to the unanim- 
ity of the great work of relief, and to the higher and 
nobler instincts of human nature when it is appealed to 
by the claims of humanity. 

The ghouls of Galveston were comparatively few in 
number. Its generous sympathizers were to be counted 
by scores of millions. 

The convicts in the Texas state penitentiary at Rusk 
were moved by the sufferings of the Galveston victims 
to contribute $iO to the relief fund. 

Are men who go to prison totally bad? 

The scope and rapidity of the Galveston relief work 



274 GENEROSITY OF THE WORLD. 

all over the country afforded a spectacle at once gratify- 
ing and noteworthy. Trains laden with food and com- 
forts for the sufferers were rushed towards the stricken 
city from every quarter of the United States. 

From Boston to San Francisco nearly every city, re- 
gardless of size, contributed its quota to the generous 
cause. Even from across the Atlantic the Liverpool and 
Paris funds came, being on the list for |10,000 each. 
Within a week after the disaster Galveston was in pos- 
session of a magnificent relief fund that went far toward 
alleviating the physical sufferings of its homeless thous- 
ands. 

Here is a social phenomenon that may well give pause 
to all critics who are wont to inveigh against our com- 
mercial and industrial age. These exhibitions of liber- 
ality are not rare in the United States. A long series of 
them might be compiled w^ithin the period between the 
Chicago fire and the Porto Rican hurricane. 

Singly and in the aggregate they are a striking nega- 
tive to the charge of sordid commercialism in our indi- 
vidual and national life. The modern American is making 
more money than ever before, but he has a heart as well 
as a business head, and he is giving larger sums to noble 
causes than were ever given before. 

Probably the increased willingness of the people to help 
stricken communities like Galveston is due more to the 
railroads and telegraph lines than to anything else. Mod- 
ern charity is the child of modern conditions. These indis- 
pensable adjuncts to commercial enterprise alone make 
widespread relief work possible. 

If the telegraph and the newspaper had not placed the 
sad picture of Galveston's misfortunes at once before 
the eyes of Americans from ocean to ocean there could 
have been no such national impulse of generosity. 



GENEROSITY OF THE WORLD. 275 

About ninety years ago an earthquake in Southern 
Missouri brought calamity to many settlers, but it was a 
mouth before the news reached the East, and another 
month would have had to elapse before relief could have 
been carried to the sufferers. The impulse to give cannot 
thrive under such circumstances. 

There have been tender hearts in all ages, but only 
in our time have the means of quick communication made 
human sympathy effective across continents. The rail- 
road, the telegraph and the newspaper have lengthened 
the arm of charitj^ quite as much as that of business. 

The Galveston incident is also a fine example of the 
way in which these agencies bind all sections of the nation 
together in increasing solidarity. 

GEEAT VALUE OF THE UNITED STATES 
WEATHER BUREAU. 

The great value of the United States Weather Bureau 
and the remarkable correctness of its observations, all 
things considered, was demonstrated by the events pre- 
ceding and succeeding the West Indian hurricane. It 
gave warning of the hurricane days before it manifested 
itself on the Texas coast. It anticipated its course from 
the vicinity of San Domingo until it reached Cuban wa- 
ters, where it made a deflection no human skill could have 
foreseen. 

The bureau was not caught napping, however. It sent 
out its hurricane signals both for the Atlantic coast and 
the gulf coast, and when the storm turned from the north 
of Cuba westward the bureau turned its attention to 
Texas, and on the morning of September 7, nearly thirty- 
six hours before the disaster, warned the people of Gal- 
veston of its coming, and during that day extended its 



276 GENEROSITY OF THE WORLD. 

siouais all along the Texas coast, thus preventing vessels 
from leaving. 

Of course the observers could not know what terrible 
energy it would gain crossing the Gulf of Mexico. 

Perhaps still greater accuracy in forecasting was dis- 
played by the bureau in the warnings given out to mari- 
ners on the Great Lakes on Tuesday morning, September 
11. Though nearly all lines of communication in Texas 
were cut off, the bureau kept track of the storm as it 
swept through Oklahoma into Kansas, and gave timely 
warning that it would turn northeast, moving across 
northern Illinois and southern Wisconsin, and thence 
across Lake Michigan and the northern end of the south- 
ern peninsula of Michigan to Canada. 

It further predicted the furious winds which prevailed 
the next day, their maximum velocity, the change caused 
by the northwest current from Lake Superior, and the 
fall of temperature 3 esterday to the nicety of a degree. 
Every vessel captain on the lakes had ample warning 
given him. 

In times gone by it was the habit to jeer at Old Prob- 
abilities, and whenever a prediction failed of verification 
to condemn the Weather Bureau as unreliable and not 
worth the expense of its maintenance. 

During the last few years, however, its operators have 
gained in skill and its record now is of a character of 
which its officials have every reason to be proud and 
which amply justifies whatever expense it may entail by 
its great saving of life and property. 

WHY SHOULD NOT GALVESTON BE REBUILT? 

The appalling nature of the wreck to which Galveston 
was reduced naturally led to some talk of abandoning 
the old site altogether and rebuilding the city somewhere 



GENEROSITY OE THE WORLD. 277 

on the mainland. An army officer concluded his report 
to Washington headquarters by expressing the opinion 
that Galveston was destroyed beyond the ability to re- 
cover, and the Southern Pacific railway was said to be 
in favor of leaving the flat island to the sport of the 
treacherous waves and heading a movement to rebuild 
the cit}^ at the mouth of the Brazos river. 

It is natural that non-residents of Galveston should 
consider the advisability of abandoning such a perilous 
site, especially as there can never be any complete secur- 
ity against a disaster like that of Saturday, September 8. 
But it is safe to say that Galveston will be rebuilt on 
its sand island. Mankind is not wont to desert any spot 
of the earth's surface because of a sudden and rare con-- 
vulsion of nature. 

Lisbon was not abandoned because of the disastrous 
earthquake that killed 50,000 people in 1755. 

Similar earthquake disasters in Central and South 
America have not induced the survivors to abandon a 
single city. 

When 100,000 Chinamen were swallow^ed up at Peking 
in the last century it did not change the site of the city, 
nor have the still more disastrous floods along the Yellow 
river ever caused the survivors to change their habitat. 

Historj' shows Europeans and Americans to be quite 
as tenacious in this regard as any other races. 

Italian peasants continue to cultivate the slopes of Ve- 
suvius in spite of all past disasters, and the inhabitants of 
the Sea Islands along the Carolina coast were not dis- 
heartened when the elements committed fearful ravages. 

The leading business men of Galveston emphasized a 
point when they began to talk of rebuilding which had 
escaped general attention until that time. They were 
exceedingly anxious that commercial bodies, steamship 



278 GENEROSITY OF THE WORLD. 

owners, brokers and those interested in the commerce of 
Galveston shoukl be as considerate as possible in their 
treatment of the citj^, that is to say, there should be liber- 
ality in the commercial relations. These men urged that 
the extent of the calamity should be taken into account 
when adjustment of contracts took place and in all busi- 
ness arrangements until the city could regain its footing. 
Charters provide by special mention for "Visitations of 
Providence," for the "Acts of God." 

The Galveston business men hoped that their business 
connections would apply a like spirit to all commerce 
affected by the storm. 

They w^ere not disappointed, as the result showed. 

Galveston was just entering upon the busy season. 
There were from 200 to 300 ships under sailing contracts 
with that port for the months of September, November 
and December. Some of these ships were, when the storm 
came, on the high seas. Even a temporary paralysis of 
thirt}^ days meant much loss and the derangement of 
many contracts. 

It was a time which called for the generous policy, not 
for strict enforcements of the letter of agreements. Gal- 
veston only asked what her business men thought was 
just, that thereby the shock to commerce might be miti- 
gated. When the time came Galveston found that she 
Imd not asked too much, as she received all the considera- 
tion she could wish. 

Keprosentatives of the railroad systems which con- 
nected Galveston with the outside world before the occur- 
rence of the disaster agreed in saying, in a meeting held at 
New York, that her residents would rebuild on the same 
sand island in spite of the terrible experiences. They be- 
lieved that Galveston, injured financially though her citi- 



GENEROSITY OE THE WORLD. 279 

zeiis had beeu, would be rebuilt by her citizeus without 
the aid of outside capital. 

A. F. Walker, Chairuiau of the Board of Directors of 
the Atchisou, Topeka and Santa Fe, said he felt certain 
that Galveston would be rebuilt. 

The new energy and courage displayed by the people 
of Galveston is what was to be expected in a city 
so full of American pluck. Though stunned and pros- 
trate under the most fatal disaster that had ever over- 
taken an American community, Galveston took only a 
few days to regain its breath. It has simply reasserted 
the same indomitable courage and will power by which 
Americans in times past built up a great nation where 
there was a wilderness a century ago. 

The terse motto stuck up on every street corner of the 
wrecked city is "Clean Up." Behind its grim humor there 
lies a stern determination that is one of the proudest attri- 
butes of our race. 

There is no reason why a greater Galveston should not 
speedily rise on the site of the present ruins. 

The report of an army officer that the city was ruined 
beyond recovery and the suggestions of other persons 
that Galveston should be rebuilt on another site find no 
sympathy among the citizens. Galveston will be rebuilt 
upon its former site. 

Carpenters, masons and artisans are being called for by 
thousands, and, with the generous aid contributed by peo- 
ple all over the country, there will be a rapid transforma- 
tion. The city has thrust its sorrow behind it and has its 
face set toward the future. 

Since the danger of flood cannot be removed so long 
as the city stands at its present level, it is to be hoped 
its builders will begin a new era of securit}^ by raising 
the grade of the streets. 



280 GENEROSITY OF THE WORLD. 

A few feet will materially decrease the danger from 
tidal Avaves. It will also be wise to construct the founda- 
tions of all permanent large buildings of stone to a height 
above the level reached by the recent inundation. In 
resolving to defy an untoward fate Galveston should be- 
gin by adopting all practical means for defying wind and 
waves. 

Even though the expense and delay will be greater, it 
will pay to give the new buildings all possible safeguards 
of solidity. 

Galveston will be rebuilt, as it was after the disaster 
of fourteen years previously. Its inhabitants will reason 
that the city had existed for two-thirds of a century in 
comparative safety, and that such a tidal wave is not 
likely to be repeated in a hundred years. The same com- 
mercial advantages that first tempted settlers to the 
island, and that made Galveston one of the most thriving 
cities on the gulf coast, are still present. 

Men w^ho own real estate on the island will not aban- 
don it, even though the improvements thereon have been 
reduced to a wreck. They know that even if they did 
abandon it there would be plenty of others to take it — 
risks and all — and rebuild the city. 

The federal government may hesitate about rebuild- 
ing its structures on so precarious a site, but private 
interests are not likely to abandon a city even for so terri- 
ble a disaster as that at Galveston. 



CHAPTER XIX. 

Galrestou Island Directly in the Path of Storms, ^itli No Way of 
Escape — What Is the City's Future! — All Coast Cities in Danger 
— New York Will Be Flooded — Hurricane Foretold — liialvestou's 
Settlement — Storm Will Kecur, 

GALVESTON ISLAND, with a strett-h of thirty-five 
miles, rises onl}" five feet above the level of high tide. To 
the south is an imbrokeu sweep of sea for 800 miles. 
Twelve hundred miles away is the nesting place of storms 
— storms that rise out of the dead calm of the doldrums 
and sweep northward, sometimes with a fury that noth- 
ing can withstand. Most of these storms describe a para- 
bola, with the westward arch touching the Atlantic coast, 
after which the track is northeastward, finally disappear- 
ing with the storm itself in the north Atlantic. 

But every little while one of these West Indian hurri- 
canes starts northwestward from its island nest, moving 
steadily on its course and entering the gulf itself. 

September and October are the months of these storms, 
and of the two months September is worse. In the ten 
years between 1878 and 1887, inclusive, fifty-seven hurri- 
canes arose in the warm, moist conditions of the West 
Indian doldrums. INIost of these passed out to sea and to 
the St. Lawrence River country, where they disappeared. 
But the hurricane of October 11, 1887, came ashore at 
New Orleans on October 17, and wrought havoc as it 
passed up the Eastern States to New Brunswick. The 
storm of October 8, 1886, reached Louisiana on the 12th, 
curving again toward Galveston on the Texas coast. It 
was in this storm that Galveston was flooded with loss 
of life and property while Indianola was destroyed beyond 
recovery. 

281 



282 IVARNINGS TO SEABOARD CITIES. 

With these non-recurring storms two conditions favor 
their passage into the gulf. A high barometric area lies 
over the Atlantic coast States, while a trough of low 
pressure leads into the gulf and northward into the region 
of the Dakotas. The hurricane takes the path of least 
resistance always, and it must i)ass far northward before 
it can work its natural way around the tardy high area 
that hangs over the central coast States. It was this con- 
dition exactly which diverted the recent storm to Galves- 
ton and the Texas coast. 

The origin of a hurricane is not fully settled. Its ac- 
companying phenomena, however, are signiticant to even 
the casual observer. A long swell on the ocean usually 
precedes it. This swell may be forced to great distances 
in advance of the storm and be observed two or three 
days before the storm strikes. A faint rise in the barom- 
eter may be noticed before the sharp fall follows. Wisps 
of thin, cirrus cloud float for 200 miles around the storm 
center. The air is calm and sultry until a gentle breeze 
springs from the southeast. This breeze becomes a wind, 
a gale, and, finally, a tempest, with matted clouds over- 
head, precipitating rain and a churning sea below throw- 
ing clouds of spume into the air. 

Here are all the terrible phenomena of the West Indian 
hurricane — the tremendous wind, the thrashing sea, the 
lightning, the bellowing thunder, and the drowning rain 
that seems to be dashed from mighty tanks with the force 
of Titans. 

Bat almost in an instant all these may cease. The wind 
dies, the lightning goes out, the rain ceases, and the thun- 
der bellows only in the distance. The core of the storm 
is overhead. Only the waves of the sea are churning. 
There mnj be twenty miles of this central core, a diameter 
of only one-thirtieth that of the storm. It passes quickly. 



WARNINGS TO SEABOARD CITIES. 283 

and with as little warning as preceded its stoppage the 
storm closes in again, but with the wind from the oppo- 
site direction, and the whole phenomena suggesting a 
reversal of all that has gone before. 

No storm possible in the elements presents the terrors 
that accompany the hurricane. The twisting tornado is 
confined to a narrow track and it has no long-drawn-out 
horrors. Its climax is reached in a moment. The hurri- 
cane, however, grows and grows, and when it has reached 
to 100 or 120 miles an hour nothing can withstand it. 

It is this terrible besom of the Southern seas that so 
nearly has taken Galveston off the map. The great storm 
of 1875 frightened the city. The fate of Indianola in 1886 
and the loss of ten lives and .f200,000 worth of property 
on Galveston Island has kept Galveston uneasy ever since. 
To-day, for it to suggest rebuilding, will meet with the 
disapprobation of many of the sympathizing Americans 
who are giving freely to the stricken people. 

But the abandonment of Galveston could not be with- 
out a struggle. For fourteen years its old citizens had 
been admitting that twice in their memory the sea had 
come in on the island, causing death and destruction, but 
as sturdily as their conservatism prompted they had in- 
sisted that it never could do so again. They gave no 
consistent reason for their belief. The island was no 
higher; the force of the sea was as boundless as before; 
the doldrums of the West Indies still hung over the 
archipelago in storm-brooding calm. But their belief 
spread and the island city grew and developed as the old 
settler never had hoped to see it grow when he squatted 
there in the sand more than sixty years ago. 

This settler stock of Galveston Island w^as of queer 
characteristics. The island settlement was of a sort of 
Captain Streeter origin. The only variation was that the 



284 WARNINGS TO SEABOARD CITIES. 

Colouel Menard who founded it bought the island and 
established a town-site company to attract immigration. 
The mainland, as flat and desolate almost as the island, 
was three miles away. But deep water was there and 
to the north was an agricultural country that one day 
would have cotton to export. So the settlers waited. 
They held to their sand lots and traded with the "mos- 
quito fleet" which sailed up and down the coast from 
Corpus Christi to New Orleans. This mosquito fleet was 
the only means for bringing outside traders to the town. 
As it grew it developed that the cit^^'s export trade was all 
it bad. It did a w^holesale business that was to its retail 
business in the proportion of 100 to 1! 

In this way Galveston developed in-growing propensi- 
ties. It scoffed at the mainland for years after the gulf 
shore began to be peopled. It was satisfied with its rail- 
road "bridges," which were mere trestlew^ork mounted on 
piling driven into the shallow water of the bay. If the 
mainland wished to reach the city let it row out or sail 
out; the city would not go to the expense of a wagon 
bridge. 

As a result, Galveston was tLe most somnolent cit}'' in 
Texas, save on the w^harves where tramp and coastwise 
ships and steamers loaded. When the market house 
closed by law at 10 o'clock in the morning, and w^hen Gal- 
veston's own local population had laid in its supplies for 
a midday dinner and for supper and breakfast. Strand 
street took a nap. 

In the '80s, however, a new element had been attracted, 
which was dissatisfied with the mossback order of things. 
It was not satisfied to make change with a stranger and 
give or take bits of yellow pasteboard, representing street 
car rides, in lieu of nickels. 

But these young immigrants were frowned upon by 



WARNINGS TO SEABOARD CITIES. 285 

Galvestou conservatism. They were a disturbing ele- 
ment. They kept the staid, mossback citizen awake in 
the afternoons and he did not like it. They were clamor- 
ing for sewers and artesian water in mains, whereas the 
conservative was content to build his rain water cistern 
above ground out of doors and strain the baby mosquitoes 
out of the water through a cloth. 

When a new waterworks and standpipe had been com- 
pleted in 1889, and when some new mills had been estab- 
lished under difficulties, affairs had come to a pass when 
the new Galvestonian and the old found a great gap be- 
tween. The visiting stranger was the confidant of both 
sides. 

"This town isn't what it used to be," sighed the con- 
servative. 

"As a matter of fact," the young business man would 
say, "Galveston needs to bury about 150 of its 'old citizens' 
before it can get awake." 

This was the situation when the government began to 
expend money upon the harbor. 

This was the situation, slightly altered by time, when 
the wagon bridge was built to the main land, when the 
government appropriated |G,200,000 for the deepening of 
the harbor, and when export trade from Galveston ap- 
proached the mark of |100,000,000 annually. And this, 
virtually, was the Galveston now in ruins. 

In rebuilding Galveston, it has been suggested that the 
bay be dredged of sand and the island raised to a uniform 
level of fifteen feet above the tide. The plan is feasible 
in every sense, and it is contended that the value of the 
city as a port would more than justify the cost. 

However the island city may decide, it will have de- 
parted from several notable instances of water-swept 
cities in rebuilding. In addition to the abandonment of 



286 WARNINGS TO SEABOARD CITIES. 

ludianola, on the mainland of Texas, are the stories of 
Last Island in the Gulf of Mexico and of Cobb's Island, a 
great fishing resort in Chesapeake Bay. 

Last Island was overwhelmed in 1856. Three hundred 
lives were lost in the hurricane. Lafcadio Hearn has put 
the legend of "L'Isle Derniere" into print and his descrip- 
tion of the hurricane that swept in upon it is a descrip- 
tion of the storm that has laid Galveston waste: 

"One great noon, when the blue abyss of day seemed 
to yawn over the world more deeply than ever before, a 
sudden change touched the quicksilver smoothness of the 
waters — the swaying shadow of a vast motion. First the 
whole sea circle appeared to rise up bodily at the sky; 
the horizon curve lifted to a straight line; the line dark- 
ened and approached — a monstrous wrinkle, an immeas- 
urable fold of green water moving swift as a cloud shadow 
pursued by sunlight. But it had looked formidable only 
by startling contrast with the previous placidity of the 
open; it was scarcely two feet high; it curled slowly as it 
neared the beach and combed itself out in sheets of woolly 
foam with a low, rich roll of thunder. Swift in pursuit 
another followed — a third, a feebler fourth; then the sea 
only swayed a little and stilled again. 

"Irregularly the phenomenon continued to repeat itself, 
each time with heavier billowings and briefer intervals 
of quiet, until at last the whole sea grew restless and 
shifted color and flickered green — the swells became 
shorter and changed form. * * * 

"The pleasure-seekers of Last Island knew there must 
have been a 'great blow' somewhere that day. Still the 
sea swelled, and a splendid surf made the evening bath 
delightful. Then just at sundown a beautiful cloud 
bridge grew up and arched the sky with a single span 
of cottony, pink vapor that changed and deepened color 



WARNINGS TO SEABOARD CITIES. 287 

with the (lying of the iridescent day. And the ch)ud 
bridge approached, strained and swung round at last to 
make way for the coming of the gale — even as the light 
bridges that traverse the dreamy Teche swing open when 
the luggermen sound through their conch shells the long, 
bellowing signal of approach. 

"Then the wind began to blow from the northeast, clear, 
cool. * * * Clouds came, flew as in a panic against 
the face of the sun, and passed. All that day, through 
the night, and into the morning again the breeze con- 
tinued from the northeast, blowing like an equinoctial 
gale. * * * 

"Cottages began to rock. Some slid away from the 
solid props upon which they rested. A chimney tumbled. 
Shutters were wrenched off; verandas demolished. Light 
roofs lifted, dropped again, and flapped into ruin. Trees 
bent their heads to earth. And still the storm grew louder 
and blacker with every passing hour. * * * 

WORK OF THE STORM. 

"So the hurricane passed, tearing off the heads of pro- 
digious waves to hurl them a hundred feet in air — heap- 
ing up the ocean against the land — upturning the woods. 
Bays and passes were swollen to abysses; rivers regorged; 
the sea marshes changed to roaring wastes of water. Be- 
fore New Orleans the flood of the mile-broad Mississippi 
rose six feet above highest water mark. One hundred 
and ten miles away Donaldsonville trembled at the tow- 
ering tide of the Lafourche. Lakes strove to burst their 
boundaries. Far-oiT river steamers tugged wiklly at their 
cables — shivering like tethered creatures that hear by 
night the approaching howl of destroyers. * * * 

"And swift in the wake of gull and frigate bird the 
wreckers come, the spoilers of the dead — savage skimmers 



288 WARNINGS TO SEABOARD CITIES. 

of the sea — hurricane-riders wont to spread their canvas 
pinions in the face of storms. * * * There is plunder 
foi- all — birds and men. * * * Her betrothal ring 
will not come off, Guiseppe; but the delicate bone snaps 
easily; your oyster-knife can sever the tendon. * * * 
Over her heart you will find it, Yalentio — the locket held 
by that fine, Swiss chain of woven hair. * * * Juan, 
the fastenings of those diamond eardrops are much too 
complicated for your peon fingers; tear them out. * * * 

"Suddenly a long, mighty silver trilling fills the ears 
of all; there is a wild hurrying and scurrying; swiftly, 
one after another, the overburdened luggers spread wings 
and flutter away. Thrice the great cry rings through the 
gray air and over the green sea, and over the far-flooded 
shell reefs where the huge white flashes are — sheet light- 
ning of breakers — and over the weird wash of corpses 
coming in. 

"It is the steam-call of the relief boat, hastening to res- 
cue the living, to gather in the dead. 

"The tremendous tragedy is over." 

GALVESTON BUILT UPON THE SAND. 

Galveston is built upon the sand. According to Profes- 
sor Willis L. Moore, Chief of the United States Weather 
Bureau at Washington, not only Galveston was insecurely 
built upon the flat sands of the island, but other cities 
on the gulf and Atlantic coasts, lying at tide, are subject 
to the same dangers. The West Indian hurricane may 
strike almost anywhere from the southern line of North 
Carolina, on down the coast, around the peninsula of Flor- 
ida, and anywhere within the great arc described by the 
western shores of the Gulf of Mexico. These storms, per- 
haps GOO miles wide, have a vortex of twenty to thirty 



WARNINGS TO SEABOARD CITIES. 289 

miles in diameter. It is in this vortex that the land is 
laid waste. 

It is this fact that will lead more strongly than any 
other to the rebuilding' of Galveston. With an export 
business of |100,000,000 annually, the great West will 
bring pressure to bear upon the maintenance of the port. 
There is an island type of man in its population that will 
not be driven from that little ridge of sand three miles 
out in the gulf. There are 1,500 miles of gulf coast on 
■which the vortex of such a storm may waste itself without 
touching Galveston, and both conservatism and commer- 
cialism w^ill take the risk that a score of other cities at 
the tide level are taking. 

At the same time there are those who see for Galves- 
ton only a commercial existence. It never can grow as it 
has grown; it never can be the home of peoj)le whose 
fortunes are not tied up in the island. 

For fourteen years the city has had to contend with 
the fears of the incomer. The growth between 1890 and 
1900 shows that these fears had been allayed in great 
measure, following the destruction in 188G. But years 
will not wipe out the black record of the last week. Hun- 
dreds will leave the island as a place of residence; thous- 
ands have been killed there and cremated in the sands 
or buried in the treacherous sea. A death rate of 200 in 
a population of 1,000 drove Indianola from the map of 
Texas. Five thousand or more deaths of the 35,000 popu- 
lation of Galveston must have its influence upon the 
living. 

For with the assurances of the United States Weather 
Bureau, it is recognized that in natural phenomena there 
are cycle periods in which extremes are repeated from 
nature's great laboratory. Observation has put this period 
of repetition at twenty years. According to this, in the 



290 WARNINGS TO SEABOARD CITIES. 

case of hurricanes, the range of maximum and minimum 
will be within such a period. Without question Galves- 
ton is in the track of a certain abnormal but not infre- 
quent West Indian hurricane w^hich fails to be deflected 
from the Georgia and Florida coasts. It keeps to its 
northwestward course and strikes the Louisiana, Texas 
or Mexico coasts, according to its impulse. In the Gal- 
veston storm a new maximum seems to have been estab- 
lished, yets its repetition may be looked for within the 
next twenty-year period. As a matter of fact, indeed, 
the average period between the recurrence of these maxi- 
mum storms has been less than fifteen years. 

Lyman E. Cooley, one of the original engineers in mark- 
ing the route of the drainage canal, is an observer of 
periodic natural phenomena, and his theory holds in great 
measure with the observations of the United States 
weather service. 

"It is a general proposition," said Mr. Cooley. "It 
means Just this much: Suppose that Chicago has a snow 
storm on June 15. Within a twenty-year period we may 
expect another phenomenon of the kind in the same cal- 
endar month. It may not snow in Chicago itself; the 
storm may be ten, twenty or thirty miles away, on any 
side of it. But in the same general territory, about the 
same time of the phenomenon, it will be repeated. 

"Suppose a terrible rain or wind storm develops, its 
repetition may be looked for in the same period. So with 
extremes of temperature, influences on lake levels, and all 
the other phenomena of nature's forces. They have their 
cycles, and the twenty-year period covers most of them." 

But in the case of Galveston, one of its great hurricanes 
was experienced in 1875, another in 188G, and the last 
only fourteen years later. These historic facts tend to 
confirm Mr. Cooley's observations. 



WARNINGS TO SEABOARD CITIES. 291 

Galveston's destruction and that of other towns sim- 
ilarly situated had been predicted. Writing in the Arena 
in 1890, Professor Joseph Rodes Buchanan said: 

"Every seaboard city south of New England that is 
not more than Mtj feet above the sea level of the Atlantic 
coast is destined to a destructive convulsion. Galveston, 
New Orleans, Mobile, St. Augustine, Savannah and 
Charleston are doomed. Richmond, Baltimore, Washing- 
ton, Philadelphia, Newark, Jersey City and New York 
will suffer in various degrees in proportion as they ap- 
proximate the sea level. Brooklyn will suffer less, but the 
destruction at New York and Jersey City will be the 
grandest horror. 

"The convulsion will probably begin on the Pacific 
coast, and perhaps extend in the Pacific toward the Sand- 
wich Islands. The shock will be terrible, with great loss 
of life, extending from British Columbia down along the 
coast of Mexico, but the conformation of the Pacific coast 
will make its grand tidal wave far less destructive than 
on the Atlantic shore. Nevertheless, it will be calam- 
itous. Lower California will suffer severely along the 
coast. San Diego and Coronado will suffer severely, es- 
pecially the latter. 

"It may seem rash to anticipate the limits of the de- 
structive force of a foreseen earthquake, but there is no 
harm in testing the prophetic power of science in the com- 
plex relations of nature and man. 

"The destruction of cities which I anticipate will be 
twenty-four years ahead — it may be twenty-three. It will 
be sudden and brief — all within an hour and not far from 
noon. Starting from the Pacific coast, as already de- 
scribed, it will strike southward — a mighty tidal wave 
and earthquake shock that will develop in the Gulf of 
Mexico and Caribbean Sea. It will strike the western 



2'J2 WARNINGS TO SEABOARD CiriES. 

coast of Cuba and severely injure Havana. Our sister 
republic, Venezuela, bound to us in destiny, by the law 
of periodicity will be assailed by the encroaching waves 
and terribly shaken by the earthquake. The destruction 
of her chief citj, Caraccas, will be greater than in 1812, 
when 12,000 were said to be destroyed. The coming shock 
will be near total destruction. 

"From South America back to the United States, all 
Central America and Mexico are severely shaken; Vera 
Cruz suffers with great severity, but the City of Mexico 
realizes only a severe shock. Tampico and Matamoras 
suffer severely; Galveston is overwhelmed; New Orleans 
is in a dangerous condition — the question arises between 
total and partial destruction. I will only say it will be 
an awful calamity. If the tidal wave runs southward 
New Orleans may have only its rebound. The shock and 
flood pass up the Mississippi from 100 to 150 miles and 
strike Baton Rouge with destructive force. 

"As it travels along the gulf shore Mobile will probably 
suffer most severely and be more than half destroyed; 
Pensacola somewhat less. Southern Florida is probably 
entirely submerged and lost; St. Augustine severely in- 
jured; Charleston will probably be half submerged, and 
Newbern suffer more severely; Port Royal will probably 
be wiped out; Norfolk will suffer about as much as Pen- 
sacola; Petersburg and Richmond will suffer, but not dis- 
astrously; Washington will suffer in its low grounds, Bal- 
timore and Annapolis much more severely on its water 
front, its spires will topj^le, and its large buildings be 
injured, but I do not think its grand city hall will be de- 
stroyed. Probably the injury will not affect more than 
one-fourth. But along the New Jersey coast the damage 
will be great. Atlantic City and Cape May may be de- 
stroyed, but Long Branch will be protected by its bluff 



WARNINGS TO SEABOARD CITIES. 293 

from any severe calamity. The rising waters will affect 
Newark, and Jersey City will be the most unfortunate of 
large cities, everything below its heights being over- 
whelmed. New York below the postoffice and Trinity 
Church will be flooded and all its water margins will suf- 
fer." 



CHAPTER XX. 

Comparisons Between tbe Galveston and Johnstown Disasters— The Latter 
Not So Horrible in Its Features — Frightful Plight of the Texas 
yictims. 

UNTIL the elements wreaked their vengeance upon the 
fair City of Galveston and vented their wrath upon its 
unoffending- population, the awful disaster at Johnstown, 
Pa., which occurred on the 31st of May, 1889, was the 
most frightful calamity known in the history of the United 
States. Johnstown was almost literally wiped from the 
face of the earth, the suddenness of the flood which cre- 
ated the havoc precluding the escape of anyone unfor- 
tunate enough to be in its path. 

Unlike the Galveston catastrophe, the flood at Johns- 
town poured its waters upon the devoted inhabitants 
without warning and the slaughter was over within the 
space of a comparatively few minutes. The victims, that 
is to say, the majority of them, were drowned or dashed 
to pieces before they had time to realize the horror of 
it all. 

At Galveston the people knew for hours before the 
angry waters submerged the island and the resistless gale 
tore the business buildings and residences to pieces what 
their fate was to be. They looked death squarely in the 
face hour after hour, suffering all the terrors dire cer- 
tainty could inflict, their knowledge that they were abso- 
lutely powerless and beyond the reach of aid adding to 
their agonies. 

Death was merciful to the people of Johnstown; he 
was cruel to his prey at Galveston, and delighted in the 
tortures he was enabled to impose before he placed his 
icy hand upon them and bade them come. 

294 



GALVESTON AND JOHNSTOWN. 395 

Perhaps the only paraUel in history to the Galveston 
visitation was the destruction, in 79 A. D., of Pompeii 
and Herculaneum. The frightened pleasure-seekers of 
those doomed cities could see the red lava stream bearing 
down upon them as it was vomited up from the bowels 
of Vesuvius and thrown out from the mighty maw of the 
crater, but even then they were mercifully stifled by the 
tremendous, never-ending shower of ashes which soon en- 
veloped them and completely covered their homes. 

They did not stand for hours, with the blackness of the 
night around them, listening to the roar of the volcano's 
eruption and hear their death knell sounded long before 
they were compelled to undergo the actual pain of an 
awful death; they were caught as they sought safety in 
flight and stricken down while endeavoring to get beyond 
the reach of the sickle of the grim reaper; they could move 
and act in accordance with their impulses which prompted 
them to make a flight for life, and they succumbed only 
after a desperate struggle. 

It was different at Galveston. The men, women and 
children were not permitted even the small but precious 
boon of falling while battling with the grim destroyer; 
they were caught and imprisoned, even as those who were 
done to death during the time when the Inquisition 
reigned, and, on the way to execution, were, it might be 
said, compelled to bear the very cross upon which they 
were to be impaled. 

There is no record since time began of such a long- 
drawn-out agony as that which the devoted people of 
Galveston endured during the period intervening between 
the advent of the hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico and 
the final imposition of the death penalty. 

Fathers saw their wives and babes crushed by the 
wreckage flung aloft and around by the fury of the gale, 



2\){j GALVESTON AND JOHNSTOWN. 

or drowned in the swift running current; wives saw their 
husbands and children torn from them and swept from 
their sight forever; children saw their parents disappear 
in the murky, turbid waters of the flood. 

Men saw the dead faces of their loved ones they would 
have deemed it a joy to save as they were borne along 
upon the bosom of the waters. Men invited destruction in 
their efforts at rescue, only to realize how weak and ut- 
terly futile was their strength in comparison to the irre- 
sistible power of the enraged elements. Men died 
desponding because they could not save those they had 
cherished and heretofore protected, and went down in 
despair and gloom. 

At Johnstown the released waters tore their way 
through the beautiful valley of the Conemagh with the 
rush and speed of a giant avalanche and enfolded their 
victims in their merciless embrace; the inhabitants were, 
in the twinkling of an eye, borne from the sunshine of 
life to the gloom of the valley of the shadow; they may 
have felt a momentary terror before they succumbed, but 
it was all over in an instant. 

At Galveston, the condemned simply waited for tiie 
inevitable; they clung to the brief remaining supports and 
died a thousand deaths before death claimed them; they 
stood upon the brink of eternity and cried in vain for the 
succor they well knew would not come; they prayed for 
mercy, but there was none. 

When the waters of the gulf leaped upon the island 
where the beautiful city sat in all her glory the people 
fled to the high places and saw the flood creep higher and 
higher until it overcame them. Although it was not until 
the darkness of the night had long since settled upon 
them they had known in the afternoon that Galveston 
was doomed. The hurricane would not permit them to 



GALVESTON AND JOHNSTOWN. 297 

escape, but sundered all commuuieatiou with the main- 
land and then laughed at their puny efforts at preserva- 
tion. 

The death roster in and around Galveston was fully 
8,000; at Johnstown the known number of victims was a 
score less than 2,300. Many died at Johnstown of whom 
nothing was ever heard, and there were possibly 2,500 
persons engulfed in the stream which all but destroyed 
the town, but at the same time the probabilities are that 
10,000 people died at Galveston and in the immediate 
vicinity. Bodies were washed up and thrown upon the 
shore by hundreds for days after the disaster; how many 
were burned upon the many funeral pyres no accurate 
record was kept. 

In one respect the two calamities were alike — the de- 
struction of millions of dollars' worth of property, but 
the losses were not so great at Johnstown during those 
fearful two minutes as those occasioned by the beating 
of the winds and waves which for hours had Galveston at 
their mercy. 

Johnstown was a city of 30,000, teeming with the indus- 
try of a manufacturing town. With not even a warning 
shout to apprise the inhabitants the dam of a lake high 
above the town broke and the flood sweeping down the 
Conemagh Valley engulfed the city and its inhabitants 
before they even knew of the danger. The whole place 
was a mass of debris and dead when the deluge subsided. 

Galveston was a city of nearly 40,000 people, and had 
within its gates hundreds of strangers, and the fact that 
telegrams of inquiry from all parts of the United States 
poured into the mayor's office in a perfect stream for days 
after the flood indicated that scores were killed of whom 
the searchers knew nothing. 

But Johnstown Avas not alone in its misery. In the 



298 GALVESTON AND JOHNSTOWN. 

southwest a tragedy was enacted a few years later which 
claimed hundreds of victims. 

A tornado, immeasurable in its force and fur}^, blotted 
out a section of St. Louis late in the afternoon of May 22, 
1896. Nearly a thousand lives and tens of millions in 
property were sacrificed. 

Until the disaster at Galveston the St. Louis catas- 
trophe was the second greatest disaster of its kind in the 
history of the nation. 

The tornado destroyed dozens of the finest buildings in 
the city. It leveled massive structures to t|ie ground. 
It tossed railroad locomotives about and crushed the east- 
ern span of the Eads bridge, one of the strongest struc- 
tures in the world. 

It made St. Louis a city of mourning for weeks and 
impoverished numberless families. 

Yet Galveston surpassed these cities in the frightful 
nature of its calamity. Hundreds of insane people are 
being cared for, their reason having been overthrown by 
their great sufferings. This was one of the saddest feat- 
ures of the shocking visitation. These poor creatures, first 
bereft of home, family and property, are now living lega- 
cies of the most stupendous catastrophe this country has 
ever known. 



CHAPTER XXI. 

Great Calamities Caused by Flood and (Jale During Past Centuries — 
Millious of Lives Lost Through tiie Fury of the Elements 

SINCE the great flood which covered the earth, and of 
which Noah and his family were the only survivors, the 
world has seen many calamities of this nature, and mil- 
lions of lives have been lost through gales and rushing 
waters. 

At Dort, in Holland, seventy-two villages and over 
100,000 people were destroyed on April 17, 1421. 

At a general inundation of nearly the whole of Holland 
in 1530, upward of 400,000 people lost their lives. 

In Catalonia, in 1617, 50,000 persons perished by flood. 

Six thousand perished by the floods in Silesia in 1813, 
and 4,000 in Poland in the same year. 

The loss of life during the recent floods in Austria-Hun- 
gary and in China have never been tullj reckoned, and 
though 100,000 persons are said to have perished in the 
Chinese inundations, the figures are not regarded as 
trustworthy. These are the only floods on record where 
the loss of human life has been estimated at over 5,000. 
The list of smaller similar disasters is almost an endless 
one. 

Holland, the little lowland country "redeemed from 
the seas," has suffered worst, from the nature of its situ- 
ation. Protected, as it is, by dikes, which separate the 
land from the water by artificial means, a constant vigi- 
lance has been required of its people to prevent the ocean 
from claiming its own. In both the deluges of 1421 and 
1530 the immediate cause was a breaking down of the 
dikes. The records of both are meager, although the mere 

299 



300 STORMS OF PAST YEARS. 

lists of the drowned suffice to show how awful the havoc 
must have been. The inundation at Dort began at Dord- 
recht, where a heavy storm caused the dikes at that point 
to give Avay. In that territory alone 10,000 people were 
overwhelmed and perished, while over 100,000 were 
drowned in and around Dullart in Friesland and Zea- 
land. The subsequent inundation of 1530 was the most 
frightful on record. It nearly annihilated the Xether- 
lands, and only to the indomitable pluck and industry 
which have ever characterized the inhabitants of that 
country was its subsequent recovery due. 

In 1108 Flanders was inundated by the sea. The sub- 
merged districts comprised an enormous area, and the 
harbor and town of Ostend were completely covered by 
water. The present city was built above a league from 
the channel, where the old one still lies beneath the 
waves. 

An awful inundation occurred at Dantzig on April 9, 
1829, occasioned by the Vistula breaking through some of 
its dikes. Numerous lives were lost, and, the records 
state, 4,000 houses and 10,000 head of cattle were de- 
stroyed. 

A large part of Zealand was overflowed in 1717, and 
1,300 of the inhabitants were lost in the floods. Ham- 
burg, while her citizens with but few exceptions were 
saved, sustained an almost incalculable loss to property. 
The same city was again half flooded on January 1, 1855, 
and enormous damage suffered. 

In the Silesian flood spoken of above the ruin of the 
French army under MacDonald, which was in that coun- 
try at the time, was materially accelerated by the forces 
of nature. 

One of the worst floods Germany ever had occurred in 



STORMS OF PAST YEARS. 301 

March, 1810; 119 villages were laid under water and a 
great loss of life and property followed the inundation. 

The floods in China and that portion of the Eastern 
Hemisphere, from time immemorial peculiarly subject to 
such calamities, have always entailed losses about which 
little has been known. No definite statistics of loss of life 
and damages have ever been obtainable. In recent years 
there have been floods there which are known to have been 
very disastrous, but that is practically all that can be 
said. In October, 1833, occurred one of the worst floods 
in the empire. Ten thousand houses were swept away 
and 1,000 persons perished in Canton alone, while equal 
or i^erhaps greater calamity was produced in other sec- 
tions of the country. 

At Vienna the dwellings of 50,000 inhabitants were 
laid under water in February, 1830. 

Two thousand persons perished in Navarre in Septem- 
ber, 1787, from torrents from the mountains produced 
by excessive rains. 

The beautiful Danube of poetry and • song has, on 
numerous occasions, risen in its might, and brought dis- 
aster and distress to the inhabitants of the countries 
through which it winds. Pesth, near Presburg, suffered 
to an enormous extent from its overflow in April, 1811. 
Twenty-four villages were swept away, and a large num- 
ber of their inhabitants perished. 

On the occasion of another overflow of this river, on 
September 14, 1813, a Ttirkish corps of 2,000 men, who 
were encamped on a small island near Widdin, were sur- 
prised and met instant death to a man. 

A catastrophe, which in some respects brings to mind 
that at Johnstown, occurred in Spain in 1802. Lorca, a 
city in Murcia, was overwhelmed by the bursting of a 
reservoir, and upwards of 1,000 people were destroyed. 



l)i)2 STORMS OF PAST YEARS. 

France has on numerous occasions suffered severely 
from floods. Its rivers have overflowed their banks at 
intervals for centuries back, causing great loss of life and 
damage to property. The Loire flooded the center and 
southwest of France by an unprecedented rise in October, 
1840, and, while thebeople succeeded in escaping to a 
great extent, damages aggregating over |20,000,000 were 
sustained. Ten years later the south of France was again 
subjected to an inundation and an immense loss sus- 
tained. 

A large part of Toulouse was destroyed by a rising of 
the Garonne in June, 1875. So sudden and disastrous 
was the flood that the inhabitants were taken unawares 
and over 1,000 lost their lives. 

Awful inundations occurred in France from October 31 
to November 4, 1840. The Saone poured its waters into 
the Rhone, broke through its banks and covered, 60,000 
acres. Lyons was almost entirely submerged; in Avignon 
100 houses were sw^ept away, 218 houses were carried 
away at La Guillotiere and upward of 300 at Yoise, Mar- 
seilles and Nismes. It was the greatest height the Saone 
had attained for 238 years. 

At Besseges, in the south of 'France, a waterspout in 
1861 destroyed the machinery of the mines and sent a 
torrent over the edge of the pit like a cataract. The gas 
exploded and hundreds of men and boys were buried be- 
low. Very few of the bodies of the dead were recovered. 

A thousand lives were lost in Murcia, Spain, by inunda- 
tions in 1879. 

India has been the scene of numerous floods. In 186 
a deluge overwhelmed the fertile districts of Bengal, kill- 
ing hundreds and plunging the survivors into the direst 
]>()verty. Famine and pestilence followed, carrying thou- 
sands away like cattle. 



STORMS OF PAST YEARS. 303 

Italy has not been exempt from the devastation of the 
waters. On December 28 and 29, 1870, Rome suffered 
great loss, and in October, 1872, the northern portions of 
the kingdom were visited b}^ great floods. There have 
been innumerable smaller inundations. 

Great Britain has a long list of inundations. It is re- 
corded that in the year 245 the sea swept over Lincoln- 
shire and submerged thousands of acres. In the year 353 
over 3,000 persons were drowned in Cheshire from the 
same cause. Four hundred families were destroyed in 
Glasgow in the year 738 by a great flood. The coast of 
Kent was similiarly afflicted in 1100, and the immense 
bank still known as the Goodwin Sands was formed by 
the action of the sea. 

While the record as given above is by no means com- 
plete, it will serve for all purposes of comparison. It em- 
braces the most important disasters of the rushing waters 
on record, and shows what a destructive force the same 
element has proven which babbles in no'mj brooks and 
sings merrily as it courses down the mountain sides. 

DEATH-DEALING STOKMS IN OTHER COUNTRIES 
IN FORTY YEARS. 

1864— Calcutta, India; 45,000 lives and 100 ships lost. 

1881— Half ong, China; 300,000 lives lost. 

1881 — England; great destruction of life and property 
and many lives lost. 

1882— Manila, Philippine Islands; 60,000 families ren- 
dered homeless and 100 lives lost. 

1886— Madrid, Spain; 32 killed, 620 injured. 

1887 — Australian coast; 550 pearl fishers perished. 

1888— Cuba; 1,000 lives lost. 

1889 — Apia, Samoan Islands; German and American 
warships w^recked and many lives lost. 



30-i STORMS OF PAST YEARS. 

lg90_Mnscat, Arabia; 700 lives lost. 
1891— Martinique; 340 lives lost and |10,000,000 worth 
of property destroj^ed. 

1§92 — Kavigo, Northern Italy; several hundred lives 

lost. 

1892 — Tonnatay, Madagascar; several hundred lives 

lost. 

1893 — Great storm on the northwest coast of Europe; 
237 lives lost off English coast and 165 fishermen off Jut- 
land. 

HISTOEIC DEVASTATING STOEMS IN THE SOUTH- 
EEN STATES. 

1840 — Adams County, Mississippi; 317 killed, 100 in- 
jured; loss 11,260,000. 

1842 — Adams County, Mississippi; 500 killed; great 
property loss. 

1880 — Barry, Stone, Webster and Christian Counties, 
Missouri; 100 killed, 600 injured; 200 buildings destroyed; 
loss 11,000,000. 

1880 — Noxubee County, Mississippi; 22 killed, 72 in- 
jured; 55 buildings destroyed; loss |100,000. 

1880— Fannin County, Texas; 40 killed, 83 injured; 49 
buildings destroyed. 

1882 — Henry and Saline Counties, Missouri; 8 killed, 
53 injured; 247 buildings destroyed; loss |300,000. 

1883 — Kemper, Copiah, Simpson, Newton and Lauder- 
dale Counties, Mississippi; 51 killed, 200 injured; 100 
buildings destroyed; loss |300,000. 

1883 — Izard, Sharp and Clay Counties, Arkansas; 5 
killed, 102 injured; 60 buildings destroyed; loss |300,000. 

1884 — North and South Carolina, Mississippi, Georgia, 
Tennessee, Virginia, Kentucky and Illinois; 800 killed, 
2,500 injured; 10,000 buildings destroyed. 




s 



< 

Q 
Z 

< 

D 

o 




Q 
O 
O 

s 



Q 
W 
CO 
D 

U 



D 
01 




Q 
O 

O 

w 
H 

w 
H 

< 

h 

w 
w 

h 
1/) 







o 

Q 
W 

s 










c/5 

O 
H 
co 

O 

h 

h 

C/3 




Q 
O 
O 
►J 

m 
X 
H 

>^ 

PQ 
Q 

> 

O 



CO 

M 

CO 

D 
O 




DC 
h 

O 
Z 

o 
< 

o 

h 
u 
D 

h 

CO 

w 
Q 







\ . 



a* 






H 










h 
< 

Q 

X 
H 

w 

H 

h 

H 

00 




< 

h 
X 
w 
Z 

u 

h 
o 

h 
v> 

> 

o 
o 

CO 

D 
Q 
O 



CHAPTER XXII. 

Overwhelming of Johnstown, Pa., by the Waters from Conemaugh Lake 
—One of the Most reonliar Happenings in History— Actual >'ninl)er of 
Deaths Will Kever Be Known— About Twenty-Five Hundred Bodies 
Found. 

ON Friday, May 31, 1889, at 12:45 p. in., the stones in the 
center of the dam which confined the waters of Cone- 
maugh Lake began to sink because of leaks in the 
masonry; at 1 o'clock the dam broke and the flood rushed 
fiercely down the beautiful Conemaugh Valley to Johns- 
town, two and a half miles directly to the southwest— 
but thirteen miles by way of the winding yalley— and 
within a few minutes nearly 2,300 men, women and chil- 
dren (this many, it is known, perished, although it is prob- 
able the loss of life was much greater) were lying dead 
in the wreckage of the city; millions of dollars' worth of 
property were destroyed and thousands of people beg- 
gared—and all because the members of the fishing club 
which controlled the lake were too penurious to have the 
leaks in the dam repaired. The coroner's verdict was to 
the effect that the club was to blame for the disaster. 

Hundreds of business buildings and residences were 
destroyed, and less than a score of the structures com- 
posing the town were uninjured; complete paralysis fol- 
lowed, and many said, as in the case of Galveston, the city 
would not be rebuilt; hundreds were crazed by their suf- 
ferings and never regained their reason; thieves 
swarmed to the place and looted the bodies of the dead 
until the arrival of several thousand State troops put an 
end to the carnival of crime; the impoverished survivors 
were cared for until they could get upon their feet again, 
relief pouring in from everywhere in the shape of hun- 

321 



322 THE JOHNSTOWN DISASTER. 

dreds of thousands of dollars in cash and thousands of 
carloads of supplies of all sorts; the business men plucked 
up courage and went to work with a will when the apathy 
succeeding the calamity had w^orn off, and to-day Johns- 
town is greater than ever, and has added to both her 
wealth and population. 

Conemaugh Lake is three and one-half miles in leng-th, 
one and one-quarter miles in width, and in some i)laces 
one hundred feet in depth, located on a mountain three 
hundred feet above the level of Johnstown, its waters 
being held within bounds by a huge earth dam nearly 
one thousand feet long, ninety feet thick and one hundred 
and twenty feet in height, the top having a breadth of 
over twenty feet. It was once a reservoir and a feeder 
for the Pennsylvania Canal. It had been widened and 
deepened and was the property of the South Fork Fishing 
and Hunting Club, an organization of rich and influential 
citizens of Pittsburg. It was a constant menace to the 
residents of the Conemaugh Valley, but engineers of the 
Pennsylvania Eailroad regularly inspected it once a 
month and pronounced it safe. 

The club leased the lake in 1881 from the Pennsylvania 
Eailroad Company. It paid no attention to the fears of 
the people of Johnstown, but merely quoted the opinions 
of experts to the effect that nothing short of an extraordi- 
nary convulsion of nature could affect the protecting dam. 

Johnstown's geographical situation is one that renders 
it peculiarly liable to terrible loss of life in the event of 
such a casualty as that reported. It is a town built in 
a basin of the mountains and girt about by streams, all of 
which finally find their way into the Allegheny River, and 
thence into the Ohio. On one side of the town flows the 
Conemaugh River, a stream which during the dry periods 
of the summer drought can be readily crossed in many 



THE JOHNSTOWN DISASTER. 323 

places by stepping from stone to stone, but which speed- 
ily becomes a raging mountain torrent, when swollen 
hj the spring freshets or heavy summer rains. 

On the other side of the town is the Stony Creek, which 
gathers up its own share of the mountain rains and whirls 
them along toward Pittsburg. The awful flood caused 
by the sudden outpouring of the contents of the reservoir, 
together with the torrents of rain that had already swollen 
these streams to triple their usual violence, is supposed 
to be the cause of the sudden submersion of Johnstown 
and the drowning of so many of its citizens. The water, 
unable to find its way rapidly enough through its usual 
channels, piled up in overwhelming masses, carrying 
before it everything that obstructed its onward rush upon 
the town. 

Johnstown, the center of the great disaster, is on the 
main line of the Pennsylvania Railroad, 276 miles from 
Philadelphia. It is the headquarters of the great Cam- 
bria Iron Company, and its acres of ironworks fill the 
narrow basin in which the city is situated. The rolling 
mill and Bessemer steel works employ 6,000 men. The 
mountains rise quite abruptly almost on all sides, and 
the railroad track, which follows the turbulent course of 
the Conemaugh River, is above the level of the iron works. 
The summit of the Allegheny Mountains is reached at 
Gallatizin, about twenty-four miles east of Johnstown. 

The people of Johnstown had been warned of the 
impending flood as early as 1 o'clock in the afternoon, 
but not a person living near the reservoir knew that the 
dam had given way until the flood swept the houses off 
their foundations and tore the timbers apart. Escape 
from the torrent was impossible. The Pennsylvania Rail- 
road hastily made up trains to get as many people away 
as possible, and thus saved many lives. 



324 THE JOHNSTOWN DISASTER. 

Four miles below the dam lay the town of South Fork, 
where the South Fork itself empties into the Conemaugh 
River. The town contained about 2,000 inhabitants. It 
has not been heard from, but it is said that four-fifths of 
it has been swept away. 

Four miles further 'down, on the Conemaugh River, 
which runs parallel with the main line of the Pennsyl- 
vania Railroad, was the town of Mineral Point. It had 
800 inhabitants, 90 per cent of the houses being on a flat 
and close to the river. Few of them escaped. 

Six miles further down was the town of Conemaugh, 
and here alone was there a topographical possibility of 
the spreading of the flood and the breaking of its force. 
It contained 2,500 inhabitants and was wholly devas- 
tated. 

Woodvale, with 2,000 people, lay a mile below Cone- 
maugh, in the flat, and one mile further down were 
Johnstown and its cluster of sister towns, Cambria City, 
Conemaugh borough, with a total population of 30,000. 

On made ground, and stretching along right at the 
riA'er verge, were the immense iron works of the Cambria 
Iron and Steel Company, which had |5,000,000 invested 
in the plant. 

The great damage to Johnstown was largely due to the 
rebound of the flood after it swept across. The wave 
spread against the stream of Stony Creek and passed over 
Kernsville to a depth of thirty feet in ^ome places. It 
was related that the lumber boom had broken on Stony 
Creek, and the rush of tide down stream, coming in con- 
tact with the spreading wave, increased the extent of the 
disaster in this section. In Kernsville, as well as in 
Ilornerstown, across the river, the opinion was expressed 
that so many lives would not have been lost had the peo- 
ple not believed from their experience with former floods 



THE JOHNSTOWN DISASTER. 325 

that there was positively no dauj^er beyond the lilling of 
cellars or the overflow of the shores of the river. After 
rushing down the mountains from the South Fork dam, 
the pressure of water was so great that it forced its way 
against the natural channel not only over Kernsville and 
Hornerstown, but all the way up to Grubbtown, on Stony 
Creek. 

By the terrible flood communication by rail and wire 
was nearly all cut off. 

The exact number of the victims of this dreadful dis- 
aster probably will never be known. Bodies were found 
beyond Pittsburg, which in all probability were carried 
to that place from Johnstown and its suburbs. The ter- 
rible holocaust at the barricade of wrecks at the bridge 
of the Pennsylvania Railroad below Johnstown, wdiere 
hundreds of men, w^omen and children who were saved 
from the waves were burned to death, caused a terrible 
loss of life. The loss of property w^as about $10,000,000. 

KNEW THE DAM WAS WEAK. 

On the Monday after the catastrophe there came to 
Johnstown a man w^ho had scarcely more than a dozen 
rags to cover his nakedness. His name was Herbert 
Webber, and he was employed by the South Fork Club as 
a sort of guard. He supported himself mostly by hunt- 
ing and fishing on the club's preserves. By almost super- 
human efforts he succeeded in w^orking his way through 
the forest and across flood, in order to ascertain for him- 
self the terrible results of the deluge which he saw start 
from the Sportsman's Club's lake. Webber said that he 
had been employed in various capacities about the pre- 
serve for a considerable time. 

He had repeatedly, he declared, called the attention of 
the members of the club to the various leakages at the 



326 THE JOHNSTOWN DISASTER. 

(lam, but he received the stereotyped reply that the 
masonry was all right; that it had been "built to stand 
for centuries," and that such a thing as its giving way 
was among the impossibilities. But Webber did not 
hesitate to continue his warnings. Finally, according to 
his own statement, he was instructed to "shut up or he 
would be bounced." He was given to understand that the 
officers of the club were tired of his croakings and that 
the less he said about the dam from thence on the better 
it would be for him. 

Webber then laid his complaint before the Mayor of 
Johnstown, not more than a month before the catas- 
trophe. He told him that the spring freshets were due, 
and that, if they should be very heavy, the dam would 
certainly give way. Webber says the Mayor promised 
to send an expert to examine the dam then, and if neces- 
sary to appeal to the State. Somehow the expert was 
not chosen, the appeal was not made at Harrisburg, and 
the calamity ensued. 

For three days previous to the final outburst, Webber 
said, the water of the lake forced itself through the inter- 
stices of the masonry", so that the front of the dam re- 
sembled a large watering pot. The force of the water was 
so great that one of these jets squirted full thirty feet 
horizontally from the stone wall. All this time, too, the 
feeders of the lake, particularly three of them, more near- 
ly resembled torrents than mountain streams and were 
supplying the dammed up body of water with quite 3,000,- 
000 gallons of water hourly. 

At 11 o'clock Friday morning, May 31, Webber said he 
was attending to a camp about a mile back from the dam, 
when he noticed that the surface of the lake seemed to 
be lowering. He doubted his eyes, and made a mark on 
the shore, and then found that his suspicions were un- 



THE JOHNSTOWN DISASTER. 327 

cloiibtedly well founded. Lie ran across the country to 
the dam, and there he saw the water of the lake wellinj^ 
out from beneath the foundation stones of the dam. Ab- 
solutely helpless, he was compelled to stand there and 
watch the gradual development of what was to be the 
most disastrous flood of this continent. 

According to his reckoning it was 12:45 when the stones 
in the centre of the dam began to sink because of the un- 
dermining, and within eight minutes a gap of twenty feet 
was made in the lower half of the wall face, through 
which the water poured as though forced by machinery 
of stupendous power. By 1 o'clock the toppling masonry, 
which before had partaken somewhat of the form of an 
arch, fell in, and then the remainder of the wall opened 
outward like twin-gates, and the great storage lake was 
foaming and thundering down the yalley of the Cone- 
ma ugh. 

Vv^ebber became so awestruck at the catastrophe that 
he was unable to leave the spot until the lake had fallen 
so low that it showed bottom nfty feet below him. How 
long a time elapsed he did not know before he recovered 
sufficient power of observation to notice this, but he did 
not think more than five minutes passed. Webber said 
that had the dam been repaired after the spring freshet 
of 1SS8 the disaster would not have occurred. Had it 
been given ordinary attention in the spring of 1887 the 
probabilities are thousands of lives would not have been 
lost. To have put the dam in excellent condition would 
not have cost |5,000. 

EXPERT SAID THE DAM WAS NOT STRONG. 

A. M. Wellington, one of the most noted engineering 
experts in the United States, said of the dam after the 
flood : 



328 THE JOHNSTOWN DISASTER. 

"No engineer of known and good standing could pos- 
sibly have been engaged in the reconstruction of the old 
dam after it had been neglected in disuse for twenty odd 
years, and the old dam was a very inferior piece of .work, 
and of a kind wholly unwarranted by good engineering 
practices of its day, thirty years ago. 

"Both the original dam and the reconstructed one were 
built of earth only, with no heart wall and rip-rapped 
only, on the slopes. True, the earth is of a sticky, clayey 
quality; the best of earth for adhesiveness, and the old 
dam was made in watered layers, well rammed down, as 
is still shown in the wrecked dam. But the new end was 
probably not rammed down at all ; the earth was simply 
dumped in like an ordinary railway filling. Much of the 
old dam still stands, while the new work contiguous to it 
was carried away. 

"It has been an acknowledged principle of dam build- 
ing for forty years, and the invariable practice to build a 
central wall either of puddle or solid masonry, but there 
was neither in the old nor in the new dam. It is doubtful 
if there is another dam of the height of fifty feet in the 
United States which lacks this central wall. 

"Ignorance or carelessness is shown in the reconstruc- 
tion, for the middle of the new dam was nearly two feet 
k)wer in the middle than at the ends. It should have been 
crowned in the middle by all the rules and practice of 
engineering. 

"Had the break begun at the ends, the cut of the water 
would have been gradual and little or no harm would 
have resulted. And had the dam been cut at once at the 
ends when the water began running over the center, the 
suddenness of the break might have been checked, the 
wall crumbling away at least more slowly and gradually 
and possibly prolonged so that little harm would have 
been done. 



THE JOHNSTOWN DISASTER. 329 

"There was an overflow through the rocks in the oUl 
dam, which provided that the water must rise seven feet 
above the ordinar^^ level before it would pass over the crest 
of the dam. But, owing to the raising of the ends of the 
dam in 1881, without raising the crest, only five and a half 
feet of water was necessary to run water over the middle 
of the dam. And this spillwaj^, narrow at best, had been 
further contracted by a close grating to prevent the fish 
from escaping from the lake, while the original discharge 
pipe at the foot of the dam was permanently closed when 
the dam was constructed. Indeed, the maximum dis- 
charge was reduced in all directions. The safety valve to 
that dangerous dam was almost screwed down tight. 

"There seems to have been no leakage through the dam, 
its destruction resulting from its running over at the 
top. The estimates for the original dam call for half 
earth and rock, but there is no indication of it in the 
broken dam. The riprap was merely a skin on each face, 
with loose spawls mixed with the earth. The dam was 
72 feet high, 2 inches slope to a. foot inside, 1^ inches to a 
foot outside slope and 20 feet thick at the top. The fact 
that the dam was a reconstructed one, after twenty years 
disuse, made it especially hard on the old dam to with- 
stand the pressure of the water." 

EVERYTHING OVER IN A FEW MINUTES. 

All was over in a few^ moments' time. The flood rushed 
down the valley when released from its prison, swept 
earth, trees, houses and human beings before it, deposit- 
ing the vast debris in front of the railroad bridge, which 
formed an impassable barrier to the passage of every- 
thing except the vast agent of destruction — the flood — 
which overflowed it and passed on to wreak fresh ven- 
geance below. 



330 THE JOHNSTOWN DISASTER. 

One of the most terrible sights was the gorge at the 
railroad bridge. This gorge consisted of debris of all 
kinds welded into an almost solid mass. Here were the 
charred timbers of houses and the charred and muti- 
lated remains of human beings. The fire at this point, 
which lasted until June 3 and had still some of its vitality 
left on the 5th, was one of the incidents of the Johnstown 
disaster that will become historic. The story has not 
been and cannot be fully told. One could not look at it 
without a shock to his sensibilities. So tangled and un- 
yielding was the mass that even dynamite had little effect 
upon it. One deplorable effect, however, was to dismem- 
ber the few parts of human bodies wedged in the mass 
that the ruthless flood left whole. 

From the western end of the railroad bridge the view 
was but a prelude to the views that were to follow. Look- 
ing across the gorge the first object the eye caught in the 
ruined town is the Melville school, standing as a guardian 
over the dead — a solitary sentinel left on the field after 
the battle. Still further on and near the center of the 
town were the offices and stores of the Cambria Iron 
Company. Beyond and around both buildings were sand 
flats, mud flats until the 29th of May, the almost nav- 
igable water of the flood itself until the 2d of June, the 
most populous and busy part of the city until the 31st of 
May. Part of the ground was covered by a part of the 
shops of the Cambria Company. Not a vestige of these 
remained. 

When the great storm of Friday came, the dam w\as 
again a source of uneasiness, and early in the morning the 
people of Johnstow^n were warned that the dam was 
weakening. Tliej^ had heard the same warning too often, 
however, to be impressed, and many jeered at their in- 
formants. Some of those that jeered were before night- 



THE JOHNSTOWN DISASTER. 331 

fall scattered along the banks of the Conemaugh, cold in 
death, or met their fate in tlie bhiziug pile of wrecked 
houses wedged together at the big stone bridge. Only 
a few heeded the warning, and these made their way to 
the hillside, Avhere they were safe. 

Early in the day the flood caused by the heavy rains 
swept through the streets of Johnstown. Every little 
mountain stream was swollen by the rains; rivulets be- 
came creeks and creeks were turned into rivers. The 
Conemaugh, with a bed too narrow to hold its greatly 
increased body of water, overflowed its banks, and the 
damage caused by this overflow alone would have been 
large. But there was more to come, and the results were 
so appalling that there lived not a human being who was 
likel}^ to anticipate them. 

At 1 o'clock in the afternoon the resistless flood tore 
away the huge lumber boom on Stony creek. This was 
the real beginning of the end. The enormous mass of logs 
was hurled down upon the doomed town. The lines of 
the two water courses were by this time obliterated, and 
Stony creek and the Conemaugh river were raging seas. 
The great logs levelled everything before them, crushing 
frame houses like eggshells and going on unchecked until 
the big seven-arch stone bridge over the Conemaugh river 
just below Johnstown was reached. 

Had the logs passed this bridge Johnstown might have 
been spared much of its horror. There were alread}^ dead 
and dying, and homes had already been swept away, but 
the dead could only be counted by dozens and not yet by 
thousands. Wedged fast at the bridge, the logs formed 
an impenetrable barrier. People had moved to the sec- 
ond floor of their houses and hoped that the flood might 
subside. There was no longer a chance to get away, and 
had they known what was in store for them the con- 



332 THE JOHNSTOWN DISASTER. 

templation of their fate would have been enough to make 
them stark mad. Only a few hours had elapsed from 
the time of the breaking of the lumber boom when the 
waters of Conemaugh lake rushed down upon them. The 
scoffers realized their folly. The dam had given way, and 
the immense body of water which had rested in a basin 
five miles long, two miles wide and seventy feet deep was 
let loose to begin its work of destruction. 

The towering wall of water swooped down upon Johns- 
town with a force that carried everything before it. Had 
it been able to pass through the big stone bridge a portion 
of Johnstown might have been saved. The rampart of 
logs, however, checked the torrent and half the houses 
of the town were lifted from their foundations and hurled 
against it. This backed the water up into the town, and 
as there had to be an outlet somewhere, the river made a 
new channel through the heart of the lower part of the 
city. Again and again did the flood hurl itself against 
the bridge, and each wave carried with it houses, furni- 
ture and human beings. The bridge stood firm, but the 
railway embankment gave way, and some fifty people 
were carried down to their deaths in the new break. 
Though this new outlet the waters were diverted in the 
direction of the Cambria Iron Works, a mile below, and in 
a moment the gTeat buildings of a plant valued at |5,000,- 
000 were engulfed and laid low. Here had gathered a 
number of iron workers, who felt that they were out of 
the reach of the flood, and almost before they realized 
their peril they were swept away into the seething tor- 
rent. 

It was now night, and darkness added to the terror of 
the situation. Then came flames to make the calamity 
all the more appalling. Hundreds of buildings had been 
piled up against the stone bridge. The inmates of but 



THE JOHNSTOWN DISASTER. 333 

few of them had had time to escape. Just how many peo- 
ple were imprisoned in that mass of wreckage may never 
be known, but the number w^as estimated at between 
1,000 and 2,000. The wreckage was piled to a height of 
fifty feet, and suddenly flames began leaping up from the 
summit. A stove had set fire to that part of the wreck 
above the water, and the scene that was then witnessed is 
beyond description. Shrieks and prayers from the un- 
happy beings imprisoned in the wrecked houses pierced 
the air, but little could be done. Men, women and chil- 
dren, held down by timbers, watched wath indescribable 
agony the flames creep slowly toward them until the heat 
scorched their faces, and then they were slowly roasted 
to death. 

Those who were held fast in the wreck by an arm or 
a leg begged piteously that the imprisoned limb be cut 
off. Some succeeded in getting loose with mangled limbs, 
and one man cut off his arm that he might get away. 
Those who were able w^orked like demons to save the un- 
fortunates from the flames, but hundreds were burned to 
death. 

Meanwhile Johnstown had been literally wdped from 
the face of the earth, Cambria City was swept away and 
Conemaugh borough was a thing of the past. The little 
village of Millville, with a population of one thousand, 
had nothing left of it but the school-house and the stone 
buildings of the Cambria Iron Company. Woodvale was 
gone and South Fork wrecked. Hundreds of people were 
drowned in their homes, hundreds were swept away in 
their dwellings and met death in the debris that was 
whirled madly about on the surface of the flood; hun- 
dreds, as has been said, we^'^ burned, and hundreds who 
sought safety on floating driftwood were overwhelmed 
by the flood or washed to death against obstructions. The 



034 THE JOHNSTOWN DISASTER. 

iustances of heroism and self-sacrifice were never ex- 
celled, perhaps not equalled, on a battle-field. Men rather 
than save themselves alone died nobly with their fam- 
ilies, and mothers willingly gave up their lives rather 
than abandon their children. 

"At 3 o'clock in the afternoon," said Electrician Ben- 
der, of the Western Union at Pittsburg, "the girl operator 
at Johnstown was cheerfully ticking away; she soon had 
to abandon the office on the first floor because the water 
was three feet deep there. She said she was wiring from 
the second story and the water was gaining steadily. She 
was frightened, and said that many houses around were 
flooded. This was evidently before the dam broke, for our 
man here said something encouraging to her, and she was 
talking back as only a cheerful girl operator can when 
the receiver's skilled ears caught a sound of the wire made 
by no human hand. The wires had grounded or the 
house had been swept away in the flood, no one knows 
which now. At 3 o'clock the girl was there and at 3 :07 
we might as well have asked the grave to answer us.'^ 

Edward Deck, a young railroad man of Lockport, saw 
an old man floating down the riA'er on a tree trunk, with 
agouiz;ed face and streaming gTay hair. Deck plunged 
into the torrent and brought the old man safely ashore. 
Scarcely had he done so, when the upper story of a house 
floated by on which M.o. Auams, of Cambria, and her two 
children were both seen. Deck plunged in again, and 
while breaking through the tin roof of the house cut an 
artery in liis left wrist, but though weakened with loss of 
blood, lie succeeded in saving both mother and children. 

J. ^V. Esch, a brave railroad employe, saved sixteen 
lives at Nineveh. 

At Bolivar a man, woman and child were seen floating 
down in a lot of drift. The mass of debris commenced to 



THE JOHNSTOWN DISASTER. 335 

part, aud by desperate efforts the husband and father 
succeeded iu getting his wife aud little one on a floating 
tree. Just then the tree washed under the bridge and a 
rope was thrown out. It fell upon the man's shoulders. 
He saw at a glance that he could not save his dear ones, 
so he threw the means of safety to one side aud gripped 
in his arms those who were with him. A moment later 
the tree struck a floating house. It turned over, and in a 
second the three persons were in the seething waters, be- 
ing carried to their death. 

C. W. Hoppenstall, of Lincoln avenue, East End, Pitts- 
burg, distinguished himself by his bravery. He w^as a 
messenger on the mail train w^hich had to turn back at 
Sang Hollow. As the train passed a point where the 
w^ater was full of struggling persons, a w^oman and child 
floated in near shore. The train was stopped and Hop- 
penstall undressed, jumped into the water, and in two 
trips saved both mother and child. 

The special train pulled in at Bolivar at 11.30 o'clock 
and trainmen were notified that further progress was 
impossible. The greatest excitement prevailed at this 
place, and parties of citizens were all the time endeavor- 
ing to save the poor unfortunates that were being hurled 
to eternity on the rushing torrent. 

The tidal wave struck Bolivar just after dark and in 
five minutes the Conemaugh rose from six to forty feet 
and the waters spread out over the whole country. Soon 
houses began floating down, and clinging to the debris 
were men, women and children, shrieking for aid. A 
large number of citizens at once gathered on the county 
bridge and they w^ere reinforced by a number from Gar- 
field, a town on the opposite side of the river. They 
brought a number of ropes and these were thrown into 
the boiling waters as persons drifted by in efforts to save 



-3C THE JOHNSTOWN DISASTER. 

some poor beings. For half an hour all efforts were fruit- 
less until at last, when the rescuers were about giving 
up all hope, a little boy astride a shingle roof managed 
to catch hold of one of the ropes. He caught it under his 
left arm and was thrown violently against an abutment, 
but managed to keep hold and was successfully pulled on 
to the bridge, amid the cheers of the onlookers. His name 
was Hessler and his rescuer was a train hand named 
Carney. The lad was taken to the town of Garfield and 
cared for in the home of J. P. Robinson. The boy was 
about 16 years old. 

His story of the frightful calamity is as follows : "With 
my father, I was spending the day at my grandfather's 
house in Cambria City. In the house at the time were 
Theodore, Edward and John Kintz, and John Kintz, Jr., 
Miss Mary Kintz, Mrs. Mary Kintz, wife of John Kintz, 
Jr., Miss Tracy Kintz, Miss Rachel Smith, John Hirsch, 
four children, my father and myself. Shortly after 5 
o'clock there was a noise of roaring waters and screams 
of people. We looked out the door and saw persons run- 
ning. My father told us not to mind, as the waters would 
not rise further. But soon we saw houses being swept 
away and then we ran to the floor above. The house was 
three stories, and we were at last forced to the top one. 
In my fright I jumped on the bed. It was an old-fash- 
ioned one with heavy posts. The water kept rising and 
my bed was soon afloat. Gradually it was lifted up. The 
air in the room grew close and the house was moving. 
Still the bed kept rising and pressed the ceiling. At last 
the post pushed the plaster. It yielded and a section of 
the roof gave way. Then suddenly I found myself on the 
I'oof and was being carried down stream. After a little 
this roof commenced to part and I was afraid I was go- 
ing to be drowned, but just then another house with f 



THE JOHNSTOWN DISASTER. 337 

siu^le roof floated by and I managed to crawl on it and 
floated down nntil nearly dead with cold, when I was 
saved. After I Avas freed from the house I did not see 
my father. My grandfather was on a tree, but he must 
have been drowned, as the waters were rising fast. John 
Kintz, Jr., was also on a tree. Miss Mary Kintz and Mrs. 
Mary Kintz I saw drowned. Miss Smith was also 
drowned. John Ilirsch was in a tree, but the four chil- 
dren were drowned. The scenes were terrible. Live bod- 
ies and corpses were floating down with me and away 
from me. I would hear persons shriek and then they 
would disappear. All along the line were people who 
were trying to save us, but they could do nothing and only 
a few were caught." 

The boy's story is but one incident and shows what hap- 
pened to one family. God only knows what has happened 
to the hundreds who were in the path of the rushing wa- 
ter. It is impossible to get anything in the way of news, 
save meagre details. 

An eye-witness at Bolivar Block Station tells a story of 
unparalleled horror which occurred at the lower bridge 
w^hich crosses the Conemaugh at this point. A young- 
man and two women were seen coming down the river 
on a part of a floor. At the upper bridge a rope was 
thrown them. This they all failed to catch. Between the 
two bridges the man was noticed to point towards the 
elder woman, who, it is supposed, was his mother. He 
was then seen to instruct the women how to catch the 
rope which was being lowered from the other bridge. 
Down came the raft with a rush. The brave man stood 
with his arms around the two women. As they swept 
under the bridge he reached up and seized the rope. He 
was jerked violently away from the two women, who 
failed to get a hold on the life line. Seeing that they 



338 THE JOHNSTOWN DISASTER. 

would not be rescued he dropped the rope and fell back 
on the raft, which floated on down. The current washed 
the frail craft in towards the bank. The young man was 
enabled to seize hold of a branch of a tree. The young 
man aided the two women to get up into the tree. He 
held on with his. hands and rested his feet on a pile of 
driftwood. A piece of floating debris struck the drift, 
sweeping it away. The man hung with his body im- 
mersed in the water. A pile of drift soon collected and 
he was enabled to get another secure footing. Up the 
river there was a sudden crash and a section of the bridge 
was swept away and floated down the stream, striking 
the tree and washing it away. All three were thrown 
into the water and were drowned before the eyes of the 
horrified spectators just opposite the town of Bolivar. 

Early in the evening a woman with her two children 
were seen to pass under the bridge at Bolivar, clinging to 
the roof of a coalhouse. A rope was lowered to her, but 
she shook her head and refused to desert the children. 
It was rumored that all three were saved at Cokeville, a 
few miles below Bolivar. A later report from Lockport 
says that the residents succeeded in rescuing five people 
from the flood, two women and three men. One man suc- 
ceeded in getting out of the water unaided. They were 
kindly taken care of by the people of the town. 

A little girl passed under the bridge just before dark. 
She was kneeling on a part of a floor and had her hands 
clasped as if in prayer. Every effort was made to save 
her, but they all proved futile. A railroader who was 
standing by remarked that the piteous appearance of the 
little waif brought tears to his eyes. All night long the 
crowd stood about the ruins of the bridge, which had been 
swept away at Bolivar. The water rushed past with a 
roar, carrying with it parts of houses, furniture and trees. 



THE JOHNSTOWN DISASTER. 339 

The flood had evidently spent its force up the valley. 
No more living persons were being ( arried past. Watch- 
ers with lanterns remained along- the banks until day- 
break, when the first view of the awful devastation of 
the flood was witnessed. 

CRAZED BY THEIR SUFFERINGS. 

When the great weaves of death swept through Johns- 
town, the people who had any chance of escape ran hither 
and thither in every direction. They did not have any 
definite idea where they were going, only that a crest 
of foaming waters as high as the housetops was roaring 
down upon them through the Conemaugh, and that they 
must get out of the way of that. Some in their terror 
dived into the cellars of their houses, though this was 
certain death. Others got up on the roofs of their houses 
and clambered over the adjoining roofs to places of safety. 
But the majority made for the hills, v^'hich girt the town 
like giants. Of the people who went to the hills the water 
caught some in its whirl. The others clung to trees and 
roots and pieces of debris which had temporarily lodged 
near the banks, and managed to save themselves. These 
people either stayed out on the hills wet and in many in- 
stances naked, all night, or they managed to find farm 
hoLses which sheltered them. There was a fear of going- 
back to the vicinity of the town. Even the people whose 
houses the water did not reach abandoned their homes 
and began to think of all of Johnstown as a city buried 
beneath the water. 

When these people came back to JohnslSown on the 
day after the wreck of the town they had to put up in 
sheds, barns, and in houses which had been but partially 
ruined. They had to sleep without any covering in their 



^3-10 THE JOHNSTOWN DISASTER. 

wet clothes, and it took the liveliest kind of skirmishing 
to get anything to eat. Pretty soon a citizens' committee 
was established, and nearly all the male survivors of the 
Hood were immediately sworn in as deputy sheriffs. They 
adorned themselves with tin stars, which they cut out of 
pieces of sheet metal in the ruins, and sheets of tin with 
stars cut out of them are turning up continually, to the 
surprise of the Pittsburg workmen who are endeavoring 
to get the town in shape. The women and children were 
housed, as far as possible, in the few houses still stand- 
ing, and some idea of the extent of the wreck of the town 
may be gathered from the fact that of 300 prominent 
buildings only sixteen were uninjured. 

For the first day or so people were dazed by what had 
happened, and for that matter they are dazed still. They 
went about helpless, making vague inquiries for their 
friends and hardly feeling the desire to eat anything. 
Finally the need of creature comforts overpowered them, 
and they woke up to the fact that they were faint and 
sick. This was to some extent changed by the arrival 
of tents and by the systematic military care for the suffer- 
ing. 

THE BRIDGE WHERE HUNDREDS LOST THEIR 

LIVES. 

The "fatal bridge," as it is now called, and which 
wreaked such awful destruction, is described by a Avriter 
in this way: 

"The bridge whose 'resistance of the torrent' was the 
matter of so much talk, was a noble four-track structure, 
just completed, fifty feet wide on top, 32 feet high above 
the water line, consisting of seven skew spans of fifty- 
eight feet each. It still remains wholly uninjured, except 
that it is badly spalled on the upper side by blows from 



THE JOHNSTOWN DISASTER. 341 

the wreckage, but that it so remains is due solely to the 
accident of its position, and not to its strength, although 
it was and is still the embodiment of solidity, 

"Had the torrent struck it, it v/ould have swept it away 
as if it had been built of card-board, leaving no track 
behind; but fortunately (or unfortunately) its axis was 
exactly parallel with the path of the flood, which hence 
struck the face of the mountain full, and compressed the 
whole of its spoils gathered in a fourteen-mile course into 
one inextricable mass, with the force of tens of thousands 
of tons moving at nearly sixty miles per hour. 

"Its spoils consisted of (1) every tree the flood had 
touched in its whole course, with trifling exceptions, in- 
cluding hundreds of large trees, all of which were stripped 
of their bark and small limbs almost at once; (2) all the 
houses in a thickly settled town three miles long and one- 
fourth to one-half mile wide; (3) half the human beings 
and all the horses, cows, cats, dogs, and rats that were 
in the houses; (4) many hundreds of miles of telegraph 
wire that was on strong poles in use, and many times 
more than this that was xn stock in the mills; (5) perhaps 
50 miles of track and track material, rails and all; (6) 
locomotives, i>ig-iron, brick, stone, boilers, steam engines, 
heavy machinerj^, and other spoil of a large manufactur- 
ing town. 

"All this was accumulated in one inextricable mass, 
which almost immediately caught fire from some stove 
which the waters had not touched. Hundreds if not thou- 
sands of human beings, dead and alive, were caught in it, 
many b}^ the lower part of the body onl}'. Eye-witnesses 
describe the groans and cries which came from that vast 
holocaust for nearly the whole night as something almost 
unbearable to listen to, yet which could not be escaped. 
Hundreds, undoubtedly, suffered a slow death by fire; yet 



342 THE JOHNSTOWN DISASTER. 

we cannot doubt that the vast majoritj' of the men, wo- 
men, and children in that fearful jam, which covered fully 
thirty acres, and perhaps more, were already dead when 
the fire began. 

"Johnstown proper is in a large basin formed by the 
junction of the Conemaugh and the almost equally large 
Stony creek, flowing into the Conemaugh from the south, 
just above the bridge. The bridge being hermetically 
sealed, it and the adjacent embankment formed a second 
dam about thirty feet high, Johnstown serving as a bed 
of a reservoir which w^e should judge to be nearly large 
enough to hold the entire contents of the reservoir above, 
except that it was already filled knee-deep or more by an 
unusually heavy but annual spring flood. 

"One offshoot of the main torrent was deflected south- 
ward by the Gautier Works, and went tearing through 
the heart of the more southerly portion of the town, and 
still another similar branch was split off from the main 
torrent further down; but in the main, the direct force 
of the torrent did not strike this southerly portion of the 
town. 

"It struck first against the jam, and thus lost most of its 
fierce energy, flowing thence southward in a heavy stream, 
v/hich tossed about houses in the most fantastic way, so 
that this part of the town looks much like a child's toy- 
village poured out of a box hap-hazard; the houses are 
not torn to pieces generally. 

"About half the loss of life was in this district, for all 
Johnstown became speedily a lake twenty or more feet 
deep, and stayed so all night; and it was here, and not 
in the direct path of the flood, that all the 'rescuing' of 
people from roofs and floating timbers occurred. 

"Nothing of the kind was possible in the flood itself. 
Likewise, after the break in the embankment had oc- 



THE JOHNSTOWN DISASTER. 343 

curred, and the flood began to recede from Johnstown, it 
was from this district chiefly that people were carried off 
down stream on floating wreckage. All that came within 
the direct path of the flood was fast within the jam. 

"The existence of this temporary Johnstown reservoir 
naturally- broke the continuity of the flood discharge, and 
transformed it into something not greatly different from 
an ordinary but \qyj heavy freshet. Cambria City, just 
below the bridge, was badly wrecked, with the loss of 
hundreds of lives; but in the main, from Johnstown down, 
the flood ceased to be very destructive. It took out almost 
ever}^ bridge it came to, for fifty miles, and washed away 
tracks, and did other minor damage, but the Johnstown 
'reservoir' saved hundreds of lives below it by equalizing 
the flow." 

THE DAY EXPRESS DISASTER. 

John Barr, the conductor in charge of the Pullman 
parlor car on the first section of the day express, which 
was caught in the flood at Conemaugh, told a thrilling 
story of his experience. 

His train, with two others, had been run onto a siding 
on high ground at Conemaugh Station, opposite the big 
round-house. He saw the w^ater coming and describes 
it as having the appearance of a mountain moving toward 
him. 

He immediately ran to his car and shouted to his pas- 
sengers to run for their lives. John Davis, connected with 
a large rolling mill near Lancaster, was traveling from 
Colorado with his invalid wife and two children, aged 
4 and 0. Mr. Davis was engaged in getting his wife 
off the car, and Conductor Barr grabbed up the two 
children, and, with one under each arm, started for the 



344 THE JOHNSTOWN DISASTER. 

hills, with the water right at his heels. He ran a distance 
of about 200 yards and barely managed to deposit his 
precious burden on safe ground before the flood swept 
past him. 

Mr. Barr said it would never be known how many per- 
sons lost their lives from the ill-fated train. The one 
passenger coach which was carried away had some peo- 
ple in it ; how many nobody knows. At least twenty were 
drowned. A freight train was between the day express- 
and the flood on an adjoining track, and this served to in 
a measure protect his train. 

Some idea of the terrible force of the flood may be 
gained from Mr. Barr's statement that the engines in the 
round-house, thirty-seven in number, swept past him 
standing half way out of the water, their forty tons of 
weight not being sufficient to take them beneath the sur- 
face. The baggage car was lifted clear out of the water 
and landed on the other side of the river. 

A Miss Wayne, who was traveling from Pittsburg to 
Altoona, had a wonderful escape. She was caught in 
the swirl and almost all of her clothing torn from her 
person, and she was providentially thrown by the angry 
waters clear of the rushing flood. 

Miss Wayne said that while she lay more dead than 
alive on the river bank, she saw the Hungarians rifle the 
bodies of dead passengers and cut off their fingers for s 
the purpose of obtaining the rings on the hands of the 
corpses. Miss Wa3me was provided with a suit of men's 
clothing and rode into Altoona thus arrayed. 

Miss Maloney, of Woodbury, N. J., a passenger on the 
parlor car, started to leave the car, and then, fearing to 
venture out into the flood, returned to the inside of the 
car. When the water subsided the crew rushed to the 
car, expecting to find Miss Maloney dead, but the water 



THE JOHNSTOWN DISASTER. 345 

had not gone high enough to drown her and she was all 
right, though greatly frightened. 

She displayed a rare amount of forethought in the face 
of danger, having tied securely around her Avaist a piece 
of her clothing on which her name w^as written in indel- 
ible ink. She fully expected that she would be drowned, 
and did this in order that her bod}^, if found, might be 
identified. 

When the water was still high Conductor Barr made an 
attempt to get back to his car from the hill, but after 
wading up to his arm-pits in the water he was forced to 
return to safe ground. 

THE PENNSYLVANIA RAILROAD'S LAST TRAIN. 

The last train to which the Susquehanna River per- 
mitted the use of the tracks of the Pennsylvania Railroad 
between Harrisburg and Lancaster rolled into Broad 
Street Station, at Philadelphia, at 9.35 p. m. on Saturday, 
June 1. It was a nondescript train. The last car was a 
vestibule Pullman which had never stopped at so many 
way stations before in its aristocratic life, and which had 
been cut off the stalled Chicago limited at Harrisburg to 
be taken back to New^ York. The rest of the train had 
started from Harrisburg at 3:40 as the day express and 
at Lancaster had been changed into the York and Co- 
lumbia "tub." 

No train's name ever fitted it better. The tub had 
swam through seven miles of water on its way, water 
differing in depth from three inches to three feet. 

The seven miles of water covered the track betvreen 
Harrisburg and Ilighspire. When the new^spaper train 
touched with the morning dailies and to some extent with 
the men who make them, dashed drippingly into Harris- 



;j46 THE JOHNSTOWN DISASTER. 

burg at half-past 7 in the moruing it had only encoun- 
tered three-fourths of a mile of water. 

No reports of a great increase in the Susquehanna's 
output had reached beleaguered Harrisburg during the 
day, and the express started out with two engines, 1095 
and 1105, towing it and a fair chance of reaching Phila- 
delphia on time. The original three-quarters of a mile 
of overflow — caused by the back water of Paxton creek 
— was passed without incident. 

The water was about up to the bottom steps of the car 
platforms and the pilot of the leading engine threw to 
each side a fine billow of yellow water, sending a swell 
like that of a tramp steamer passing Gloucester, in among 
the floating outhouses and submerged slag heaps of the 
suburbs of Harrisburg and bringing cheers from thous- 
ands who watched the train's advance from their second- 
story windows and forgot the condition of their first-floor 
furniture in the excitement of w^atching the amphibious 
prowess of the day express. 

"We've seen the worst of it," said the elderly, kindly 
conductor to a couple of excited women passengers as 
the last of the three-fourths of a mile of billows was 
thrown from the pilot of 1095. "We've seen the worst of 
it, but the train will have to wait here a little while — 
the fires are almost out." 

So 1095 and 1102 stood puffing and panting for a while 
on the high track while the afternoon sunlight dried their 
dripping flanks and the baffled Susquehanna rolled its 
burden of driftwood sulleuly southward on their right. 
Tlien the day express rolled on again. The dry ground 
was just about long enough to give the train an impetus 
for another header into the Susquehanna's overflow. 

It was into the Susquehanna itself that the header 
seemed to be taken this time. It v/as no longer a question 



THE JOHNSTOWN DISASTER. 347 

of an overflow creek iu a railroad cut. The billows from 
the prow of 1095 swept not in among overturned out- 
houses and submerged slag heaps, but out on the broad 
coffee-colored bosom of the river to be broken into a 
thousand chop waves among the churning driftwood. The 
people in the second-story windows forgot to cheer. The 
people in the coaches forgot to joke on the men's part and 
to fret on the women's. It was curious and it was ticklish. 

The train was running slowly, very slowly. The wheels 
were out of sight. The water was swirling among the 
trucks and lapping at the platforms. The only sign of 
land locomotion about the day express was an audible 
one, a watery pounding and rumbling of the wheels on 
the hidden tracks. 

The day express looked like a long broad river serpent 
wriggling on its belly down along the green river bank. 
Gradually there was a simultaneous though not concerted 
movement among the passengers. They began crowding 
toward the platforms and looking toward the land side. 
Suddenly a brakeman broke the queer silence, in a voice 
which had just the least crescendo of excitement in it. 

"If you people don't keep quiet we can't do anything!" 
he shouted. 

The demand was a little absurd, the direction of a land 
coxswain to "trim ship." Still, it had its uses. It re- 
lieved the tension v/hich everybody felt and nobody ac- 
knowledged. The passengers retired from the platforms. 

Joking began again among the men and fretting among 
the women. There hadn't been much fun iu looking to- 
ward the land side anyway. What had appeared to be a 
recession of the waters when looked at from above was 
mereW a svv'elling of the stream from the overflow of the 
canal which parallels the road for several miles at that 
point. 



348 THE JOHNSTOWN DISASTER. 

All at once the train, wliieli had been moving more 
slowly for each of a good ten minutes, stoi>ped short. It 
seemed as if 1095's sharp nose had scented danger like a 
sensitive horse, and, panting, refused to go further. 

Then the engine crews were seen by the passengers to 
leap from their cabs thigh deep in the water and begin 
hauling at some sub-aqueau obstacle. 

"Driftwood," said the same brakeman who had com- 
manded quiet. 

So it was, A train stopped by driftwood! It was float- 
ing all about and threatened to impede the progress of 
the day express altogether. Fence rails from far up coun- 
try farms, planks from dismantled signal stations, plat- 
forms along the line, railroad ties innumerable, branches 
and even small trunks of trees floated against the wheels 
with disjected stacks of green wheat and other ruined 
crops upon the ever-rising flood of the river. 

There had been high dry land in sight just beyond 
Highspire Station, but as sure as guns were iron and 
floods were floods the land was disappearing. The river's 
rise was steady. The inhabitants of the drowned lands 
who appeared to take the drowning easily, though uo such 
a drowning had been known to them in a quarter of a 
century, had been in large numbers keeping company 
of the train for the last two miles in skiffs and punts. 
They rowed close to the cars and towed away the larger 
drift. They were not entirely on life-saving service. There 
was a bit of the wreckage in their composition. They 
towed the trunk and ties into tht^r front yards and 
anchored them to their window-blinds. 

Finally the straining backs of the engine-crews gave 
one mighty tug at the hidden obstacle. A huge platform 
plank floated loose from 1095, and 1095 shrieked triumph. 
The wheels began to churn the brown water with yellow- 



THE JOHNSTOWN DISASTER. 3-19 

ish ^vhite and 1005 and 1102 ran up on the dry ground 
like the eagle in the sun, to whom the Irish poet compared 
the Irish troops at Fontenoy. 

As they did so the clatter of a light advancing train 
was heard from the east, and a sound of cheering. A 
single engine drawing two crowded cars shot around the 
bend, and ran with a light heart into the torrent out of 
w^hich the day express had just emerged. 

"They'll never get through," was the unanimous com- 
ment of the day express passengers, and their verdict 
seemed to be confirmed officially by the brakeman who 
had been excited. 

He stood in the door of the car and shouted: "This 
train will stop at all stations between Lancaster and 
Bryn Mawr. There will be no more trains between Har- 
risburg and Lancaster to-night." 

Afterwards he added : "As this is the last train it will 
have to take the place of the 'tub.' " 

THE FIRST RUSH OF THE DEATH WAVE. 

A man who was above the danger line on the right bluff 
above the town, and who saw the first rush of the death 
wave, says that it was preceded by a peculiar phenomena, 
which he thinks was the explosion of the gas mains. He 
says that a few minutes before the wall of the water had 
reached the city there was a tremendous explosion some- 
where in the upper part of the place. He said that he 
saw the fragments of the buildings rise in the air, and 
the next moment saw two lines of flame down through 
the city in different directions, and frame buildings were 
apparentl}^ being torn to pieces and wrecked. The next 
minute the water came, and he remembers nothing fur- 
ther. There really was an explosion of gas that wrecked 



350 THE JOHNSTOWN DISASTER. 

a clr.irch in the upper part of the city just at the time 
of the flood. If there was also an explosion of the gas 
main, the cause of the fire at the bridge is explained. 
Light frame buildings set on fire by the explosion were 
picked up bodily and tossed on top of the water into the 
wreck at the bridge without the fire being extinguished. 
Mrs. Fredericks, an aged woman, was rescued alive 
from the attic in her house. The house had floated from 
what was formerly Vine street to the foot of the moun- 
tains. Mrs. Fredericks says her experience was terrible. 
She said she saw hundreds of men, women and children 
floating down the torrent to meet their death, some pray- 
ing, while others had actually become raving maniacs. 

THE REAL HORRORS! OF THE DISASTER. 

"No one will ever know the real horrors of this accident 
unless he saw the burning people and debris beside the 
stone bridge," remarked the Rev. Father Trautwein. 
"The horrible nature of the affair cannot be realized by 
any person who did not witness the scene. As soon as 
possible after the first great crash occurred I hastened 
to the bridge. 

"A thousand persons were struggling in the ruins and 
iinploring for God's sake to release them. Frantic hus- 
bands and fathers stood at the edge of the furnace that 
was slowly heating to a cherry heat and incinerating hu- 
man victims. Every one was anxious to save his own 
relatives, and raved, cursed, and blasphemed until the air 
appeared to tremble. No S3^stem, no organized effort to 
release the pent-up persons was made by those related to 
them. 

"Shrieking they would command: 'Go to that place, 



THE JOHNSTOWN DISASTER. 351 

go get lier out, for God's sake get her out,' referring to 
some beloved one they -wanted saved. 

"Under the circumstances it was necessary to secure 
organization, and thinking I was trying to thwart their 
efforts when I ordered another point to be attacked by 
the rescuers, they advanced upon me, threatened to shoot 
me or dash me into the raging river. 

"One man who was trying to steer a float uponwhicli his 
v.ife sat on a mattress lost his hold, and in a moment the 
craft swept into a sea of flame and never again appeared. 
The agony of that man Avas simply heartrending. He 
raised his arms to heaven and screamed in his mental 
anguish and only ceased that to tear his hair and moan 
like one distracted. Every effort was made to save every 
person accessible, and we have the satisfaction of know- 
ing that fully 200 were saved from cremation. One 
young woman was found under the dead body of a rela- 
tive. 

"A force of men attempted to extricate her and suc- 
ceeded in releasing every limb but one leg. For three 
hours they labored, and every moment the flames crept 
nearer and nearer. I was on the point several times of 
ordering the men to chop her leg off. It would have been 
much better to save her life even at that loss than have 
her burn to death. Fortunately it was not necessary; but 
the young lady's escape from mutilation or death she will 
never realize." 

The flood and fire claimed among its victims not only 
the living, but the dead. A handsome coffin was found 
half burned in some charred wreckage down near the 
point. Inside was found the body of a man shrouded for 
burial, but so scorched about the head and face as to be 
unrecognizable. The supposition is that the house in 
which the dead man had lain had been crushed and the 



''.r.->. 



THE JOHNSTOWN DISASTER. 



debris partly consumed by fire. The body is still at the 
Fourth AYard school house, and unless reclaimed it will 
be buried in the unknown field. 

THE CLOCK STOPPED AT 5:20. 

One of the queerest sights in the center of the town 
was a three-story brick residence standing with one wall, 
the others having disappeared completely, leaving the 
floors supported by the partitions. In one of the upper 
rooms could be seen a mantel with a lambrequin on it and 
a clock stopped at twenty minutes after five. In front of 
the clock was a lady's fan, though from the marks on 
the wall paper the water had been over all these things. 

In the upper part of the town, where the back water 
from the flood went into the valley with diminished force, 
there were many strange scenes. 

There the houses were toppled over one after another 
in a row, and left where they \i\j. One of them was turned 
completely over and stood with its roof on the foundations 
of another house and its base in the air. The owner 
came back, and getting into his house through the win- 
dows, walked about on his ceiling. 

Out of this house a woman and her two children es- 
caped safely and were but little hurt, although they were 
stood on their heads in the whirl. 

Every house had its own story. From one a woman 
sent up in her garret escaped by chopping a hole in the 
roof. From another a Hungarian named Grevius leaped 
to the shore as it went whirling past and fell twenty-five 
feet upon a pile of metal and escaped with a broken leg. 

Another is said to have come all the way from very 
near the start of the flood and to have circletl around with 
the back water and finally landed on the flats at the city 
site, where it is still pointed out. 



THE JOHNSTOWN DISASTER. 353 

THE SITUATION NINE DAYS AFTER. 

A corresivondent described the situation at Johnstown 
nine days after the disaster in this way: 

"So vast is the field of destruction that to get an ade- 
quate idea from any point level with the town is simply 
impossible. It must be viewed from a height. From tlie 
top of Kernsville Mountain, just at the east of the town, 
the whole strange panorama can be seen. 

"Looking down from the height many things about the 
flood that appear inexplicable from below are perfectly 
plain. How so many houses happened to be so queerly 
twisted, for instance, as if the water had a twirling in- 
stead of a straight motion, was made perfectly clear. 

"The town was built in an almost equilateral triangle, 
with one angle pointed squarely up the Conemaugh Val- 
ley to the east, from which the flood came. At the north- 
erly angle was the junction of the Conemaugh and Stony 
creeks. The southern angle pointed up the Stony Creek 
Valley. Now about one-half of the triangle, formerly 
densely covered with buildings, is swept as clear as a 
platter, except for three or four big brick buildings that 
stand near the angle which points up the Conemaugh. 

"The course of the flood, from the exact point where 
it issued from the Conemaugh Valley to where it dis- 
appeared below in a turn in the river and above by spread- 
ing itself over the flat district of five or six miles, is clearly 
defined. The whole body of water issued straight from 
the valley in a solid wave and tore across the village of 
Woodvale and so on to the business part of Johnstown 
at the lower part of the triangle. Here a cluster of solid 
brick blocks, aided by the conformation of the land evi- 
dently divided the stream. 

"The greater part turned to the north, swept up the 



354 THE JOHNSTOWN DISASTER. 

brick block and then mixed with the ruins of the villages 
above down to the stone arch bridge. The other stream 
shot across the triangle, was turned southward by the 
bluffs and went up the valley of Stony creek. The stone 
arch bridge in the meantime acted as a dam and turned 
part of the current back toward the south, where it fin- 
ished the work of the triangle, turning again to the north- 
ward and back to the stone arch bridge. 

"The stream that went up Stony creek was turned back 
by the rising ground and then was reinforced by the back 
water from the bridge again and started south, where it 
reached a mile and a half and spent its force on a little 
settlement called Grubbtown. 

"The frequent turning of this stream, forced against 
the buildings and then the bluffs, gave it a regular whirl- 
ing motion from right to left, and made a tremendous 
eddy, whose centrifugal force twisted everything it 
touched. This accounts for the comparatively narrow 
path of the flood through the southern part of the town, 
where its course through the thickly clustered frame 
dwelling houses is as plain as a highway. 

"The force of the stream diminshed gradually as it went 
south, for at the place where the currents separated every 
building is ground to pieces and carried away, and at 
the end the houses were only turned a little on their foun- 
dations. In the middle of the course they are turned over 
on their sides or upside down. Further down they are not 
single, but great heaps of ground lumber that look like 
nothing so much as enormous pith balls. 

"To the north the work of the waters is of a different 
sort. It picked up everything except the big buildings 
that divided the current and piled the fragments down 
upon the stone bridge or swept them over and so on down 
the river for miles. 



THE JOHNSTOWN DISASTER. 355 

"This left the great yellow, sandy and barren plain, so 
often spoken of in the dispatches where stood the best 
buildings in Johnstown — the opera house, the big hotel, 
many wholesale warehouses, shops and the finest resi- 
dences. 

. "In this plain there are now only the Baltimore & Ohio 
Railroad train, a school house, the Morrell Company's 
store and an adjoining warehouse and the few buildings 
of the triangle. One brick residence, badly shattered, is 
also standing. 

"These structures do not relieve the shocking picture 
of ruin spread out below the mountains, but by contrast 
making it more striking. That part of the town to the 
south where the flood tore the narrow path there used to 
be a separate village which was called Kernsville. It is 
now known as the South Side. Some of the queerest 
sights of the wreck are there, though few persons have 
gone to see them. 

"Manj- of the houses that are left there scattered helter 
skelter, thrown on their sides and standing on their roofs, 
were never in that neighborhood nor anywhere near it 
before. They came down on the breast of the wave from 
as far up as Franklin, were carried safely by the factories 
and the bridges, by the big buildings at the dividing line, 
up and down on the flood and finally settled in their new 
resting places little injured. 

"A row of them, packed closely together and every one 
tipped over at about the same angle, is only one of the 
queer freaks the water played. 

"I got into one of these houses in my walk through the 
town to-day. The lower story liad been filled with water 
and everything in it had been torn out. The carpet had 
been split into strips on the floor by the sheer force of the 
rushing tide. Heaps of mud stood in the corners. There 



;]5G THE JOHNSTOWN DISASTER. 

\\as no vestige of furniture. The walls dripped with 
moisture, 

"The ceiling w^as gone, the windows were out and the 
cold rain blew in and the only thing that was left intact 
was one of those worked worsted mottoes that you always 
expect to find in the homes of working people. It still 
hung to the wall, and though much awry the glass and 
frame were unbroken. The motto looked grimly and 
sadly sarcastic. It was: — 

" 'There is no place like home.' 

"A melancholy wreck of a home that motto looked down 
upon. 

"I saw a wagon in the middle of a side street sticking 
tongue and all straight up into the air, resting on its tail 
board, with the hind wheels almost completely buried in 
the mud. I saw a house standing exactly in the middle 
of Napoleon street, the side stove in by crashing against 
some other house and in the hole the coffin of its owner 
was placed. 

"Some scholar's library had been, strewn over the street 
in the last stage of the flood, for there was a trail of good 
books left half sticking in the mud and reaching for over 
a block. One house had been lifted over two others in 
some mysterious way and then had settled down between 
them and there it stuck, high up in the air, so its former 
occupants might have got into it again with ladders. 

"Down at the lower end of the course of the stream, 
where its force was greater, there was a house lying on 
one corner and held there by being fastened in the deep 
mud. Through its side the trunk of a tree had been driven 
like a lance, and there it stayed sticking out straight in 
the air. 

"In the muck was the case and key board of a square 



THE JOHNSTOWN D/SASTliR. ;;5T 

piano, and far down (be river, near the debris aboul tlic 
stone bridge, were its legs. An npright piano, Aviih all 
its inside apparatus cleanly taken out, stood straiglit up 
a little way off. What was once a set of costly furniture 
was strewn all about it, and the house that bad contained 
it was nowhere. 

"The remarkable stories that have been told about peo- 
ple floating a mile up the river and then back two or three 
times are easily credible after seeing the evidences of 
the strange course the flood took in this part of the town. 
People w^ho stood near the ruins of Poplar Bridge saw 
four women on a roof float up on the stream, turn a short 
distance above and come back and go past again and once 
more return. Then they were seen to go far down on the 
current to the low^er part of the town and were rescued 
as they passed the second-story window of a school house. 
A man who was imprisoned in the attic of his house put 
his wife and two cliildren on a roof that was eddying past 
and stayed behind to die alone. They floated up the stream 
and then came back and got upon the roof of the very 
house they had left, and the whole family were saved. 

"At (jrrubbtown there is a house which came all the 
way from Woodvale. On it was a man who lived near 
Grubbtow'n, but was working at Woodvale when the flood 
came. He was carried right past his own home, and 
coolly told the people at the bridge to bid his wife good- 
bye for him. The house passed the bridge three times, 
the man carrying on a conversation with the people on 
the shore and giving directions for his burial if his body 
should be found. 

"The third time the house went up it grounded at 
Grubbtown, and in an hour or two the man was safe at 
home. Three girls who went by on a roof craw^led into 
tlie branches of a tree, and had to stay there all night 



358 THE JOHNSTOWN DISASTER. 

before tlie}^ could make anyone understand where they 
were. At one time scores of floating houses were wedged 
in together near the ruins of Poplar street bridge. Four 
brave men went out from the shore, and stepping from 
house-roof to house-roof brought in twelve women and 
children. 

"Some women crawled from roofs into the attics of 
houses. In their struggles with the flood most of their 
clothes had been torn from them, and rather than appear 
on the streets they stayed where they were until hunger 
forced them to shout out of the window for help. At this 
stage of the flood more persons were lost by being crushed 
to death than by drowning. As they floated by on roofs 
or doors the toppling houses fell over upon them and 
killed them. 

"The workers began on the wreck on Main street just 
opposite the First National Bank, one of the busiest parts 
of the city. A large number of people were lost here, the 
houses being crushed on one side of the street and being 
almost untouched on the other, a most remarkable thing 
considering the terrific force of the, flood. Twenty-one 
bodies were taken out in the early morning and taken to 
the morgue. They were not much injured, considering 
the weight of lumber above them. 

"In many instances the}^ were wedged in crevices. They 
were all in a good state of preservation, and when they 
were embalmed they looked almost lifelike. In this cen- 
tral part of the city examination is sure to result in the 
unearthing of bodies in every corner. Cottages which are 
still standing are banked up with lumber and driftwood, 
and it is like mining to make any kind of a clear space. 

"Thirteen bodies were taken from the burning debris at 
the Stone Bridge at one time yesterday afternoon. None 
of the bodies were recognizablCj and they were put in 



THE JOHNSTOWN DISASTER. 359 

coffins and buried immediately. They were so badly 
decomposed that it was impossible to keep them until 
they could be identified. During a blast at the bridge 
yesterday afternoon two bodies were almost blown to 
pieces. The blasting has had the effect of opening the 
channel under the central portion of the bridge. 

"The order that was issued that all unidentified dead 
be buried is being rapidly carried out. The Rev. Mr. 
Beall, who has charge of the morgue at the Fourth Ward 
school house, which is the chief place, says that a large 
force of men has been put at work digging graves, and 
at the close of the afternoon the remains will be laid 
away as rapidly as it can be done. 

"William Flynn has taken charge of the army of eleven 
hundred laborers who are doing a wonderful amount of 
work. In an interview he told of the work that has to 
be done, and the contractors' estimates show more than 
anything the chaotic condition of this city. 'It will take 
ten thousand men thirty days to clear the ground so that 
the streets are passable and the work of rebuilding can 
be commenced,' said he, 'and I am at a loss to know how 
the work is to be done. This enthusiasm will soon die out 
and the volunteers will want to return home. 

" 'It w^ould take all summer for my men alone to do 
what work is necessary. Steps must be taken at once to 
furnish gangs of workmen, and I shall send a communi- 
cation to the Pittsburg Chamber of Commerce asking the 
different manufacturers of the Ohio Valley to take turns 
for a month or so in furnishing reliefs of workmen. 

" 'I shall ask that each establishment stop work for a 
week at a time and send all hands in the charge of a 
foreman and timekeeper. We will board and care for 
them here. These gangs should come for a week at a 



3 GO THE JOHNSTOWN DISASTER. 

time, as no orgauization can be affected if workmen arrive 
and leave when the}' please.' 

"A meeting was lield here in the afternoon which re- 
sulted in the appointment of James B. Scott, of Pittsburg, 
generalissimo. 

"Mr. Scott in an interview said that he proposed to 
clear the town of all wreckage and debris of all descrip- 
tions and turn the town site over to the citizens when he 
has completed his work clean and free from obstructions 
of all kinds. 

"I was here when the gang came across one of the upper 
stories of a house. It was merely a pile of boards appar- 
entl3% but small pieces of a bureau and a bed spring from 
Vv'hich the clothes had been burned showed the nature of 
the find. A faint odor of burned flesh prevailed exactly 
at this spot. 

" 'Dig here,' said the physician to the men. There is 
one body at least quite close to the surface.' The men 
started in with a w^ill. A large pile of underclothes and 
household linen was brought up first. It was of fine 
quality and evidently such as would be stored in the bed- 
room of a house occupied by people quite well to do. 

"Presently one of the men exposed a charred lump of 
flesh and lifted it up on the end of a pitchfork. It was all 
that remained of some poor creature who had met an 
awful death between water and fire. 

"The trunk was put on a cloth, the ends were looped 
up, making a bag^ of it, and the thing was taken to the 
river bank. It weighed probably thirty pounds. A stake 
was driven in the ground to which a tag was attached 
giving a description of the remains. This is done in many 
cases to the burned bodies, and they lay covered with 
cloths upon the bank until men came with coffins to re- 
move them." 



CHAPTER XXlll. 

Not More Than Half the Bodies of Victims Identified— Hundreds of 
Corpses of the Uukuowu and Kameless Cast Into tlie Sea—Others 
Buried in the Sand and Cremated— List of Ideutilicatious. 

THE actual uumber of lives lost at Galveston will never 
be known, but over 4,500 bodies of victims of the frightful 
catastrophe were identified; and these, together with the 
hundreds of identified and unidentified corpses which 
were buried at sea, in the sands along the beach, in the 
yards and grounds of private residences; those bodies 
which must have been carried out into the gulf when 
the waters receded from the island Sunday morning; 
those cremated; the hundreds found on the gulf coast, on 
the shores of Galveston Bay, and those taken from the 
water; and, finally, those discovered in all sorts of places 
inland (the bodies found outside Galveston Island being 
buried w^here picked up) — all these served to swell the 
Galveston death list to possibly 7,000, which w^as the 
figure named by Mayor Jones the fifth day after the flood. 
He had every opportunity for obtaining information on 
this point. 

Until the cremation of bodies began the foremen of the 
various burial gangs made lists of the bodies disposed of 
by their men, but w^hen it became necessary to burn the 
corpses, the danger of pestilence being so great that they 
had to be put out of the way at the earliest possible 
moment, the compilation of these lists was abandoned 
and a mere general estimate made. The work of clear- 
ing the business and residence streets proceeded but 
slowly, the men in the gangs assigned to this being ener- 
vated by the Intense heat of the sun, sickened by the eflflu- 

361 



362 LIST OF IDENTIFICATIONS. 

via from the decomposing bodies of dead human beings 
and animals, and depressed by the gloomy character of 
their surroundings. Most of the men thus employed, 
were citizens of (lalveston, many of whom were in com- 
fortable circumstances before the storm swept aw.ay their 
belongings. In the majority of cases these workers had 
lost not only their earthly possessions, but members of 
their immediate families as well, and were heartsore and 
crushed in spirit. In the main, they engaged in this work 
because they wanted to help the city out in its desperate 
straits, and for the further reason that if not busied in 
mind and body they might possibly go mad. 

The first of the lists of the identified dead was made 
out and made public on Tuesday following the disaster, 
and the lists compiled the succeeding days were given 
out as soon as completed. 

The lists printed below comprise the first and only 
complete roster of the dead which has appeared any- 
where: 

FIRST LIST 0¥ IDENTIFIED VICTIMS— TUESDAY, 
SEPTEMBER 11. 



Aguilo, Joseph B., chairman of the Bell, Mrs. Dudley, wife of Galves- 

Democratic county executive ton News compositor, and child. 

committee. Beveridge, Mrs., and two children. 

Allen, Charlotta M., Seventeenth Betts, Walter, cotton broker, and 

street and Avenue A. wife. 

Allen, E., and wife. Bird, the family of police officer 

Amundsen, mother of Deputy Bird. 

Chief of Police Amundsen. Broecker, John F., wife and two 

Burrows, Mrs. M. children. 

Bross, Mrs. Kate, Twenty-second Bowe, Mrs. John, and three chil- 

street, near beach. dren. Police officer John Bowe 

Burnett, Mrs. George, and child, attempted to save his family on 

Twenty-fourth street and Ave- a raft, but they were swept 

nue P. away and drowned. 

Barbon, Mrs. Burnett, Gary, and wife and Mrs. 

Baxter. Mrs., and child, lost in Burnett. 

Magia store. Caddom, Alex., and four children. 



LIST OF IDENTinCATIONS. 



3(>8 



Clark, Mrs. C. T., and infant. 

Compton, A. J., and wife. 

Correll, Mrs. J. R., and family. 

Collins, daughter of Mrs. Collins. 

Cline, Mrs., wife of Dr. L. M. 
Cline, local forecast official of 
the United States weather bu- 
reau. 

Coryell, Patti Rosa. 

Coates, Mrs. William, wife of Wil- 
liam A. Coates, of Galveston 
News. 

Cramer, Miss Bessie. 

Daly, W. L., grain exporter and 
steamship agent for Charles F. 
Ortwein & Co. 

Day, Alfred. 

Davies, John R., and wife. 

Delaney, Mrs. Jack, wife of United 
States bridge officer of the port, 
with two children. 

Delyea, Paul, ex-sergeant police. 

Davenport, W., wife and three 
children. 

Davis, Lessie. 

Dorin, Mrs. 

Dorrian, Mrs., and five children; 
had taken refuge with nine 
other persons on the roof of a 
house which was destroyed and 
all lost. The Dorian house with- 
stood the elements. 

Ellison, two children of Captain 
Ellison, one of them drowning 
in its mother's arms. 

Engelke, John, wife and child. 

Evans, Mrs. Kate, and two daugh- 
ters. 

Eichter, Edward, Thirteenth 
street and Avenue N. 

Ewing, Miss. 

Fordtran, Mrs. Claude J., 1919 
Tremont street. 

Fix, C. H. 

Fisher, W. F., wife and two chil- 
dren. 
Flash, William, and daughter, 
Twenty-fifth street and P ave- 
nue; Mrs. Flash was saved. 
Foster, Harry, wife and three chil- 
dren. 
Frederickson, Violet. 
Frederickson, Mrs., and baby. 
Gernand, Mrs. John F., and two 
children. 



Guest, Mamie. 

Gordon, Mrs. Abe, and five chil- 
dren. 

Gernaud, John H., wife and two 
children. 

Hansinger, H. A., daughter and 
mother-in-law. 

Harris, Mrs. (colored.) 

Harris, Mrs. Rebecca. 

Hobeck, , and boy. 

Howe, , police officer, and 

family. 

Howth, Mrs. Clarence. 

Hughes, Joe. 

Hawkins, Mattie Lea. 

Hesse, Mrs. Irene, Broadway and 
Sixth street. 

Hunn, F., street-car motorman. 

Hunter, Albert, and wife. 

Hamburg, Mrs. Peter, and four 
children. 

Harris, Mrs. J. H. 

Jones, Mr., and wife. 

Johnson, Richard, struck by fly- 
ing timber and instantly killed. 

Jones, Mrs. W. R., and child. 

Kelly, Willie. 

Keller, Charles A., prominent 
cotton man. 

Kelly, Barney. 

Lackey, wife and two children of 
Leon J. Lackey, telegraph oper- 
ator. 

Longnecker, Mrs. A. 

Lord, Richard, traffic manager 
George H. McFaden Brothers, 
cotton exporters. 

Lynch, John. 

Lassocco, Mrs., Twenty-first street 
and Avenue P. Twenty-five per- 
sons are reported to have been 
lost in the store building of 
Mrs. Lassocco. 

Lisbony, W. H. 

Labbat, Joe. 

Lafayette, Mrs., and two children. 

Magia, Mr., two daughters and 
son, grocery. Eleventh street 
and Avenue A. 

Masterson, B. T., and family. 

Motter, Mrs., and two daughters. 

Munn, Mrs. J. W., Sr. 

McKenna, five members of the P. 
J. and J. P, McKenna families- 



oiU 



LIST OF IDENTIFICATIONS. 



Monroe, Mrs., colored, and three 

children. 
Mordon, Miss. 
McCauley, Miss Annie. 
Morton, Mrs., and two babies. 
Nolly, Mrs. Sam and four children, 
with ten other women and chil- 
dren, in the Nolly house on For- 
tieth street and Avenue T. Mr. 
Nolly and another man were 
saved after a bitter struggle. 
O'Keefe, Mrs. Michael, and brother. 
O'Harrow, William. 
O'Dell, Miss Nellie, and brother, 
daughter and son of James 
O'Dell. 
Peck, Captain R. H., city engineer, 

wife and five children. 
Peek, Captain; house was seen to 
overturn while he was in it, and 
he has not been found. 
Porette; thirteen persons killed 
in a house at Eighth street and 
Broadway. Dominick Porette is 
the only one of the party who 
lives to tell the tale. 
Parker; an entire family living at 
Thirty-ninth and Q streets, con- 
sisting of Angeline Parker and 
grandchild. Tommy Lesker; Si 
Sullivan Parker and wife and 
three children. 
Parker, Mrs. Frank, Avenue Q and 

Thirty-first street. 
Porfree, Henry, a tailor. 
Palmer, J. B., and baby. 
Plitt, Harmon. 
Parker, Mrs. Mollie. 
Ptolmey, Paul. 
Quester, Mrs. W., little son and 

daughter. 
Quester, Bessie. 

Rice, proof reader on the Galves- 
ton News, and child. 

Richards, , police officer. 

Roll, J. F., wife and four children. 

Rowan, , police officer, and 

family. 
Rust, Charles, knocked from a 
dray while attempting to carry 
his family to a place of safety; 
instantly killed. 
Rose, Mrs., wife of Commissary 
Sergeant Franklin Rose of the 
United States Army. 



Ripley, Henry, son of H. S. Ripley. 

Rhymes, Thomas, wife and two 
children. 

Regan, Mike, wife and mother-in- 
law, lost at the Porette house. 

Roudaux, Murray. 

Sailor, Spanish, of the steamship 
Telesfora. which drifted against 
the Whitehall at pier 15. 

Schofield, Miss Ida, lost in Magia 
store. 

Schroeder, Mrs. George M., and 
four children. 

Schuler, Mr., wife and five children. 

Schwartzback, Joseph. 

Shaw, nephew of M. M. Shaw. 

Somers, Miss Helen. 

Spencer, Stanley G., local repre- 
sentative of Demster & Co.'s 
steamship lines and the North 
German Lloyd steamship lines. 

Stickloch, Miss Mabel, Mechanic 
street. 

Swain, Richard D. 

Swell, George, mother and sister. 

Schultz, Mr. and wife. 

Sharp, Miss Annie. 

Summers, Sarah. 

Sharp, Mr. and wife. 

Schaler, Mrs. Charles, and four 
children. 

Sylvester, Mrs. 

Smith, Mrs. Mamie. 

Slierwood, Charles. 

Thompson, mother-in-law and sis- 
ter-in-law of William Thompson 
of the fire department. 

Tovrea, ■ , police officer. 

Treadwell, Mrs. J. B., and infant. 

Taylor, Mrs., colored. 

Toothacker, wife and daughter of 
Jesse W. Toothacker, contractor 
and builder. 

Trebosius, Mrs. George, wife of 
George Trebosius of the Galves- 
ton News, and two sisters of Mr. 
Trebosius, at their home, Forti- 
eth street and Avenue R. 

Unidentified — Two sisters-in-law 
and a niece. 

Unidentified — White girls, 12 years 
old, found in the yard of J. Paul 
Jones. 

Unidentified — Four white and 
seven colored persons found in 



LIST OF IDENTIFICATIONS. 



;i05 



the first story of W. J. Reit- 
meyer's residence. Reitmeyer 
family, in the second story, es- 
caped. 

Unidentified — A lady and her 
daughter from St. Louis. 

Unidentified — Thirteen inmates 
and three matrons at the Home 
for the Homeless. 

Wakelee, Mrs. Davis. 

Webster, Edward, and two sisters. 

Webster. Thomas, Sr., secretary of 
the grain inspector of the port, 
with family of four. 

Wensmor, several members of the 
family residing in the east end; 
one of the family an old man, 
was saved. 

Wenman, Mrs. J. W., and two 
children. 

Wolfe, Charles, police officer, and 
family. 

Wood, Mrs., mother of United 
States Deputy Marshal Wood. 

Wilson, Mrs. Mary Ann and baby. 

Wallace, , and four children. 

Watkins, S. W., Avenue Q and 
Thirty-first street. Mr. Watkins 
was drowned and it was reported 
that about twenty other persons 
in the same house met a similar 
fate. 

Wren, James, wife and six chil- 
dren; drowned at the Porette 
House. 

Wootam, . 

Woodward, Miss Hattie. 

Wollam, C, drowned after saving 
several women and while trying 
to save others. 

Walter, Mrs. Charles, and three 
children. 

Twenty-two persons — Francois, a 
well-known waiter, reported the 
loss of twenty-two persons who 
had taken refuge in his house. 
At Hitchcock, Tex., thirty lives 

were lost. Two Italian families of 

thirteen people met death by 

drowning. The following were 

killed by falling timbers: 

Robinson, William. 

Dominico, a child. 

Johnson, Hiram, and wife. 

Pietze, Mrs., and three children. 



The family of C. W. Young, wife, 
two sons and two daughters. 

Montelona, Mary. 

Palmero, — -,wife and seven chil- 
dren. 

O'Connor, T. W. 

Members of two families of Alvin, 
who were visiting the Young 
family. 

Seven unidentified found on 
prairie, supposed to be from 
Galveston. 
Five Houston people perished at 

Seabrook in the hurricane. They 

were: 

Lucy, Mrs. C. H., and two small 
children. 

M'Uhenny, Haven, and the 5-year- 
old son of David Rice. 
At Alvin the dead were: 

Johnson, J. M. 

Johnston, Mrs. J. S. 

Appelle, Miss. 

Lewis, Mrs. 0. S. 

Glaspy, John S. 

Richardson, B. 

Collins, Mrs. J. W., killed by fall- 
ing timbers. 

Collins, Mrs. 

Hawley, W. P. 

Mebam, W. C, and wife. 
At Rosenburg the following 

death list was reported: 

Watson, Rev. A. 

Ontrall, Mrs. I. J. 

Herman, B. S. 
At Oyster Creek the reported 

dead were: 

Carlton, H. 

Smith, S. 

Jones, Tom. 

Arnold, A. 

Smith, Connie. 

Marshall, Lucy. 

Stephens, Tom, colored. 
At Areola: 

Wofford, Mrs. A., aged white 
woman. 
At Alto Loma: 

Twenty-seven— (no list given). 
At Richmond eighteen persons 

were killed. 
At Wharton, sixteen neg^roes 

were drowned. 



;3G0 



LIST OF IDENTIFICATIONS. 



At Morgan's Point: 
Vincent, Mrs., and two children. 

THE DEATH LIST FOR 
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 12. 

Aimers, Mrs. P. 

Anderson, M., and family. 

Andrew, Mr., and three children. 

Annudsen, Louis. 

Armstrong, Mrs. Dora, and four 

children. 
Bell, Mrs. A. C. 
Bell, Guy. 

Berger, W. L., wife and child. 
Bodden, Mrs., and Mrs. J. P. 
Brockelman, three children of J. 

T. Brockelman. 

Bures, , wife and sister. 

Burge, William, wife and child. 
Burnett, Mrs. Mary. 
Burnett, Mrs. Gary, and two chil- 
dren. 
Carigan, Joseph. 
Childs, K. T. 

Cleveland, George, and family. 
Cornett, Charles, and wife. 
Connett, Mr. and Mrs. William, 

and two children. 
Craig, George. 
Dailey, K. 

Dilz, M., and two sons. 
Dorian, George, and wife. 

Ducos, , two children. 

Delcie, Mrs. Henry R., and child. 

Darby, Charles. 

Dowell, Mrs. Sam. 

Edmunsen, Mrs. 

Edwards, Miss Eliza. 

Eggerett, William, and son 

Charles. 
Ellis, Mrs., and family. 
English, John, wife and child. 
Eideman, H. E. 

Everhart, J. H.,wife and daughter. 
Fabey, Sumptey. 

Falke, Joseph, and three children. 
Farmer, Mrs. I. P. 
Faucett, Robert. 
Faucett, Mrs. Belle. 
Fegue, Lillie, and Esther and 

Laura May, children of Mrs. 

Lillie Fegue. 
Fox, Thomas. 
Fritz, . 



Floehr, Mrs. 

Gaulters, J. 

Grathcar, Mrs. John, and child. 

Harrah, Martin. 

Harris, Mrs. John, and three chil- 
dren. 

Heck, Mrs., and son. 

Herman, Martin, and two children. 

Hinke, August, Richard and Jo- 
hanna. 

Holbeck, Mrs. L. L. 

Homburg, Peter. 

Hock, Mrs., and son. 

Hayman, Mrs. John A., and five 
children. 

Johnson, A. S., wife and three chil- 
dren. 

Jones, Robert. 

Junemann, Charles, wife and 
daughter. 

Junter, William, and six children. 

Kampe, Charles. 

Kauffman, H., wife and children. 

Kelso, Munson, Jr. 

Kedso, Roy, baby boy of J. C. 
Kelso. 

Kirby, Mrs. J. H., and three chil- 
dren. 

Klein, Mrs. E. V. 

Kleincke, H., and wife. 

Koepler, Mrs. Fred., and family. 

Kraus, Mr. and Mrs. J. J. 

Krauss, Fred. 

Krauss, Joseph J., wife and daugh- 
ters. 

Krausse, I., wife and two daugh- 
ters. 

Louis, Poland, carrier News. 

Lorance, Mrs. T. A. 

Lucas, Mrs. H., and two children 
and white nurse. 

Malrs, O. M., wife and child. 

Maree, , employed by James 

Fascher. 

Malter, J. 

Martin, Mrs. 
Martin. 

Masterson, B. T., and family. 

Miles, Colson. 

Miller, William, and family (part 
nei- of Childs). 

Mitchell, Mrs. W. H., and child. 

Mongon, John. 

Morro, Dotlo, wife and seven chil- 
dren. 



wife of Policeman 



LIST OF IDENTIFICATIONS. 



;j(i7 



Muttie, A. 

M'Manus, Mrs. William. 

Miner, Lucia. 

Neill, — , and family. 

Nolan, Mrs. 

Olson, Mrs. Mattie, and two chil- 
dren. 

Opperman, Miss May, and Mar- 
guerite and Gussie of Palestine. 

Odelle, O. 

Olsen, Mrs. Matilda, and two chil- 
dren. 

Parler, Mrs. D., and two children. 

Pasker, Miss Ethel. 

Pauls. Nellie and Cecilia. 

Pix, C. H. 

Palmer, J. B., and baby. 

Plitt, Harmon. 

Peters, Mrs. 

Park, Mrs. M. L. 

Park, Miss Alice. 

Park, Miss Lucy. 

Roberts, , watchman G. H. and 

N. R. R. 

Rattizan, Mrs. Leon, and four chil- 
dren. 

Ratissa, Mrs. W. L., and three 
children. 

Raymond, Mr. and Mrs., and two 
children. 

Reagan, J. N. 

Rhaes, T. F., wife and two chil- 
dren. 

Roan, Mrs., and three children. 

Rudger, C, wife and child. 

Runter, A., and mother and father. 

Schoabel, George, wife and daugh- 
ter. 

Severet, J., and wife. 

Sherwood, Thomas, wife and three 
children. 

Shilke, Mrs., son and infant. 

Siegler, Mrs. Fred. 

Sommers, F., wife and three 
daughters and his son Joseph, 
wife and child. 

Stetgel, Mr., and family. 

Stockfelt, Peter, wife and six chil- 
dren. 

Swanson, Mrs. 

Stcckfletch, Petci-. wife and six 
children. 

Schwotsel, George, wife and daugh- 
ter Lulu. 

Sayers, Dr. John B. 



Sayers, Tom. 

Smith, Jacob. 

Stowinsky, Mr., and wife. 

Seixas, E., and two daughters, 
Anna and Lucile. 

Tarpey, Joseph. 

Toveca, Sam, policeman, wife and 
four children. 

Tow, T. C, wife and five children. 

Thomsen, Mrs. W. D., and two 
children. 

Tovrea, Sam, wife and child. 

Toothacker, Miss Jennie. 

Tillebach, Charles, wife, mother- 
in-law and two children. 

Villeneve, Mrs., and child of Hitch- 
cock. 

Vogel, Mrs. Henry, and three chil- 
dren. 

Vondenbaden, Mrs., and two chil- 
dren. 

Walden, Mr. 

Warmarvosky, Adolph, mother 
and sister reported missing. 

Warneke, Mrs. A. W., and five 
children. 

Warren, James, wife and six chil- 
dren. 

Webber, Mr., family missing. 

Wedges, Judge, justice of the 
peace, and wife. 

Wilsh, Joseph, wife and two chil- 
dren. 

Wincott, Mrs. 

Windman, Mrs. 

Webster, Edward, Sr. 

Webster, Mrs. Julia. 

Webster, Mrs. Sarah. 

Webster, George. 

Webster, Joe. 

Yeats, — — , child. 

Youngblood, L. J., wife and child. 

Zipp, Mrs. and daughter. 

THURSDAY'S (SEPTEMBER 13) 
AWFUL ROSTER OF IDENTI- 
FIED DEAD. 

The official list of those identi- 
fied on Thursday was as follows: 
Adams, Toby. 
Adams, Mrs. 
Agin, George. 
Allen, Mrs. Alex. 
Anderson, Mrs. S. 



308 



LIST OF IDENTIFICATIONS. 



Albertson, A. 

Albertson, Mrs. 

Alpin, George. 

Alpin, Mrs. 

Anderson, Mrs. .Jack. 

Ashe, George, Sr. 

Ashe, George, .Tr. 

Bell, Alexander. 

Berger, Mrs. Lucy. 

Bell, Henry. 

Bland, Mrs. 

Bland, Mrs. Florence. 

Bodecker, Charles. 

Boss, Charles. 

Boss, D. 

Brooks, J. R. 

Cain, Rev. Thomas W. 

Cain, Mrs. 

Calhoun, Mrs. Thomas. 

Carter, Corinne. 

Casey Mrs. Annie. 

Clark, C. Y. 

Chaffee, Mrs. 

Cuney, R. C. 

Davis, Gabe. 

Day, Alfred. 

Day, Willie. 

Dempsey, Mr. and Mrs. 

Davis, Henry T. 

Dorrfe, Mr. 

Dorrfe, Mrs. 

Dunton, Mrs. Annie. 

Dammel, Mrs. 

Dammell, W. D. 

Direkes, Henry. 

Dowell, Mrs. Samuel. 

Dunning, Mrs. H. C. 

Dunning, Richard. 

Evans, Mrs. 

Falkenhagen, Mr. and Mrs. 

Freitag, Harry. 

Frank, Mrs. Aug. 

Frieman, Mr. and Mrs. 

Feither, Mrs. F. 

Ferget, Julius. 

Gibson, Professor. 

Goth, A. E. 

Goth, Mrs. 

Green, Mrs. Lucy. 

Gentry, Charlotte. 

Gottleib, Mrs. 

Homes, Florence. 

Harris, Effie. 

Higgins, Mrs. 

Hoffman family. 



Holland, Mrs. .James. 

Hughes, Robert. 

Jefferbrook, August. 

Jefferbrook, Mrs. 

Johnson, Mrs. 

Johnson, Mrs. W. J. 

Jones, W. R. 

Jasters, Perry. 

King, Mrs. 

Knowles, Mrs. W. T. 

Kuhn, Mrs. H. Clem. 

Kuhnel, Mrs. 

l^awson, Charles. 

Tjawson, Mrs. 

Lewis. Agnes. 

Lewis, Maria. 

Lewis, Mrs. Maria. 

Levin, P. 

Lindquist, Mrs. 0. 

Lockman, Mr. and Mrs. H. 

Ludwig. Alfred. 

Lyle, William. 

Lemmon, Virgie. 

Lloyd, Buck. 

Lloyd, Mrs. 

Ludwig, Albert. 

Manley, Joe. 

Moore, Mrs. N. 

Moore, Mrs. Nathan. 

Martin, Herman. 

Menzel, John. 

Menzel, Mrs. 

Morse, .Arthur P. 

Morse. Mrs. 

McGuire, John. 

McPherson, Robert. 

McDade, Ed. 

Nelson, Mrs. 

Park, Miss Lucy. 

Piney, Mrs. 

Patrick, Cora. 

Patrick, Ida. 

Pierson, Mrs. Mary. 

Pierson, Alice. 

Pierson, Frank. 

Piner, Mrs. Ella. 

Powers, Mrs. 

Randolph, Edith. 

Ravey family. 

Roehm, Mrs. 

Roehm, William. 

Roehle, John. 

Roehle, Mrs. 

Ruehrmond, Professor. 

Ruehrmond, Mrs. 



LIST OF WENTII'ICATIONS. 



3()9 



Roukes, Mrs. Charles. 

Reuter, Otto. 

Reuter, Henry. 

Rowe, Ada. 

Rowe, Hattie. 

Rowe, George. 

Shaw, Frank. 

Seidenstricker, Henry. 

Schultze, Charles. 

Schuiz, Fred. 

Schulz, Mrs. 

Schuiz, Charles C. 

Schwotsel, George. 

Scott, Annie. 

Scull, Mrs. Mary. 

Seixas, Miss Arma. 

Seixas, Miss Lucille. 

Sexalis, Sella. 

Schutte, E. R. 

Schutte, Mrs. 

Shilhe, Mrs. 

Tix, Herman. 

Torr, T. C. 

Torr, Mrs. T. C. 

Thurman, Mrs. 

Tresvant, Jordan. 

Trostman, Mrs. 

Turner, Mrs. 

Turner, Mr. 

Turner, Mrs. 

Ulerldge, Adelaide. 

Van Liew, Mollie. 

Van Buren, Herman. 

Waring, Mrs. (Chicago). 

Warren, Celia. 

Washington, Mrs. 

Weiss, Professor. 

Weidemann, Fritz. 

Wilke, assistant city electrician. 

AVilke, Mrs. 

Williams, Mrs. E. C. 

Williams, Sam. 

Williams, Mrs. 

Woodrow, Matilda. 

Yeager, William. 

Zweigel, Mrs. 

IDENTIFICATIONS MADE ON 
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 14. 

Aberhart, T., and wife. 

Ackermann, Herman, wife and 
daughter. 

Adams, M., and Mrs. Tobey (col- 
ored). 



Adameit, Mrs. G., and seven chil- 
dren. 

Akers, C. B., wife and three chil- 
dren. 

Albertson, A., wife and two chil- 
dren. 

Allardico, R. L., wife and three 
children. 

Allen, Cornelia. 

Allen, Daisy. 

Allen, Elve. 

Allen, Zerena. 

Alphonse, John, wife and family. 

Anderson, Oscar, wife and chil- 
dren. 

Anderson, Andrew, wife and chil- 
dren. 

Armitage, Miss Vivian. 

Armour, Mrs., and five children. 

Artisan, John, wife and nine chil- 
dren. 

Andrew, Mrs. A., and family. 

Bell, Alexander, wife, two sons 
and daughter. 

Boedecker, Charles. 

Bercer, Mrs. Lucy. 

Brooks, J. T. 

Bland, Mrs., and seven children 
(colored). 

Bell, Henry. 

Bankers, Mrs. Charles. 

Beach, Miss Nina of Victoria. 

Boedenker, H., father, brother and 
sister-in-law. 

Barnard, Mrs. 

Becker, John, wife and daughters, 
Mae and Vida. 

Brown, Winnie M. 

Bellew, Mr. and Mrs. J., and 
daughter. 

Bass, John, wife and four children 
(colored). 

Baulch, Will, wife and two chil- 
dren. 

Beal, Mrs. Dudley, and child. 

Bedford, Cushman (colored). 

Bohn, Dixie. 

Boss, Peter, and wife. 

Bowen, . 

Bradley, Miss Mannie. 

Bradley, Miss Ethel. 

Bentley, and family. 

Briscoll, A. M. 

Bockelman, C. J. 

Brown, Joe, and family. 



370 



LIST OF IDENTIFICATIONS. 



Buckley, Selma. 

Buckley, Blanche. 

Buckley, mother and father. 

Buckley, Mrs. and daughter. 

Burgee, William, wife and child. 

Burrell, Mrs. (colored). 

Bittell. Mrs. 

Christian, John. 

Campbell, Will. 

Curry, Mrs. Martha J., and Miss 
Louisa. 

Campbell, Miss Edna. 

Carter, Adeline. 

Ninety people at Catholic Orphan 
Home. 

Cato, William (colored). 

Childs, William, and wife. 

Clark, Tom. 

Corbett, James J., and four chil- 
dren. 

Caddoe, Alex., and five children. 

Colsen, . 

Connor, Captain D. E. 

Connor, Edward J. 

Cowen, . 

Crouse, J. J., wife and children. 

Credo, Will. 

Cromwell, Mrs., and three chil- 
dren. 

Crook, Ashby. 

Crowley, Miss Nellie, and brother. 

Cuneo, Mrs. Joseph, New Orleans. 

Curry, Mrs. E. H., and child. 

Carven, Mrs., and daughter. 

Carnett, , and wife, of Orange, 

Crawford, Rayburn. 

Carson, Frank C. 

Clinton, Mrs. Mary, and children 
— George A., Horace, Lee W., 
Joseph B., Willie B. and Freddie. 

Darrell, , and five children. 

Davis, Mrs. T. F. 

Deltz, M., and two sons. 

Dinter, Mrs., and daughter. 

Donahue, Ellen, Utica, N. Y. 

Donahue, Mary, Utica, N. Y. 

Doll, George and wife. 

Doll, Frank, and family. 

Doty, John. 

Doyle, Jim. 

Dunningham, Richard E. 

Dunnin, Mrs. Howard C, and 
three children. 

Dirke, Henry, and family. 



Darfee, Mr. and Mrs., and two 
daughters. 

Dammill, W. D., and wife (col- 
ored). 

Dunham, George R., and wife. 

Dunham, George R., Jr., and two 
children. 

Donnelly, Nick. 

Ducos, Madeline and Octavia. 

Davis, Miss Emma. 

Drewa, H. A. 

Demesie, Mrs., and two sons. 

Dowles, Samuel, wife and one 
child. 

Davis, Mrs. Mary, and children — 
Carrie, Alice, Lizzie and Eddie. 

Eckett, Fred. 

Eckett, Charles. 

Edward, James, and family. 

Eismann, , wife and child. 

Eismann, Howard. 

Ellas, James, and two children. 

English, John, wife and child. 

Emmanuel, Joe. 

Eppendorf, Mr. and Mrs. 

Eads, Sumpter. 

Forget, Julius. 

Pfeither, Mrs. Fritz. 

Frau, Mrs. August, and daughter. 

Faby, C. S., wife and two children. 

Foster, Mrs. August. 

Freise, Mr. and Mrs. Charles M. 

Forbush, John, and Freddie. 

Fretwell, J. B., Mrs. and boy. 

Foster, Mrs. S. F. 

Farrer, Miss Nannie of Sullivan's 
Island. 

Frank, Anton, wife and two daugh- 
ters. 

Fanchon family. 

Fedo. Joe. 

Ferwedert, Peter. 

Fickett, Mrs., and four children. 

Fiegel, John. 

Figge, Mrs., and four children. 

Franks, Mr., and daughter. 

Fornkesell, T. C. 

Foster, Mr. and Mrs. Harry, and 
three children. 

Fox, Thomas, wife and four chil- 
dren. 

Frankovich, Charles and John, 

Fredericks, Corinne. 

Furst family. 

Gait, A. E.. and wife. 



LIST Of WEN Til' J CA TIONS. 



i 



Gibson, Professor, and family. 

Gentry, Charlotte (colored). 

Gonzales, Andrew, wife and daugh- 
ter Pauline. 

Graham, Mrs. H., and baby. 

Garnett, Robert F. 

Gibson, Mary C. 

Guilett, Colonel, of Victoria. 

George, H. K., and family. 

Grey, H. K., and family. 

Grey, Randolph, four children and 
sister-in-law. 

Garbaldi, August. 

Gabel, Mr. and Mrs. (colored). 

Gallishaw. and five children. 

Gaires, Mrs. Lillie, and two daugh- 
ters. 

Ganth, . 

Garrigan, .Joe. 

Gecan, Matt. 

Gordon, Oscar. 

Clausen, Charles, and family of 
four. 

Gregg, , and four children. 

Grief, John, wife and three chil- 
dren. 

Grosscup, Mrs. 

Goodwin, two girls. 

Genning, Tim, and wife. 

Gruetsmicher, Louis, wife and two 
daughters. 

Gaines, Captain Edward, and wife. 

Hildebrand, Fred. 

Harris, Miss Rebecca. 

Hubbell, Misses Maggie and 
Emma. 

Haines, sister of Mrs. Captain 
Haines. 

Huebener, Mrs. A., and boy. 

Haughton, Willie O. 

Hunter, George. 

Hausinger, George. 

Hall, Charles (colored). 

Hannamann, Mrs. August. 

Harris, L. 

Harris, Thomas, wife and three 
children. 

Harris, Mrs. W. D., and son. 

Harrison, Tom, and wife. 

Hassler, Charles, and wife. 

Hasselmeyer family. 

Haughton, Mrs. W. W. 

Heidmann, William, Jr. 

Helfenstein, Sophie and Willie. 

Hennessy, Mrs. M. P., and two 
nieces. 

Herman, Martin, and two children. 



Hersey, Mrs. John. 

Holmes, Mrs. (colored). 

Hoskins, T. D.. wife and three 
children (colored). 

Hubbell, Emma and Maggie. 

Hull, William (colored). 

Hull, Charles (colored). 

Humberg, Mrs. Peter, and four 
children. 

Jackman. Ada, and two children. 

Jaeger, William H. 

Jaeger, John, and wife. 

Jaecke, Mrs. Curt, and three chil- 
dren. 

Jennings, James A., and wife. 

Jennssen, Mrs. and Mr., and five 
children. 

Johnson, Asa, wife and son. 

Johnson, Julian. 

Johnson, child. 

Johnston, J. B., wife and two chil- 
dren. 

Johnston, Mrs. Alice. 

Johnston, Mrs. E. E., and four 
children. 

Junkf, Martha. 

Junka, Mrs. Paulina. 

Junker, Mrs. Colina. 

Johnston, Mrs. 

Johnston, Mrs. W. J. 

Johnson, Mrs. C. S. 

Jones, J. H., and wife. 

Jaeger, Walter H. 

Johnson, V. S. 

Johnson, Odin, wife and child. 

Johnston, J. A., and wife. 

Keats, Tom, and wife. 

Keeton, J. C., wife and three chil- 
dren. 

Kelmer, Charles L., Sr. 

Kely, , wife and three chil- 
dren. 

Keiffer, wife and daughter. 

Kennelly, Mrs. Annie. 

Kester, Fred, and daughter. 

Kirby, James, and three men. 

Kirby, Mrs. George, and two chil- 
dren. 

Kleinicke, Mrs., and family. 

Klenmann, Fred and wife. 

Knowles, Mrs. W. T., and three 
children. 

Kuder, Ed., and wife. 

Kuhn. Oscar, wife and three chil- 
dren. 

Kleinmann, Henry, and wife. 
Klindlund, Newton and Carl. 



372 



LIST OF IDENTIFICATIONS. 



Kemp, Tom and wife. 

Kemp, W. C, and wife. 

Kotte, William. 

Kimlo, Mrs. John, and two chil- 
dren. 

Kelly, Thomas, wife and two chil- 
dren. 

Kreckrecek, Joe, wife and three 
children. 

King, Mrs. 

Karvel, Mrs. Jack, and four chil- 
dren. 

Konstantopolos, F. 

Kreywell, David, and daughter. 

Keis, L., wife and four children. 

Lawson, Charles, wife and child. 

L.udwig, Alfred, mother and sis- 
ter-in-law. 

Lackey, Mrs., father and mother. 

Lyle, William, grandmother and 
sister. 

Labatt, H. J. 

Labatt, Louisa C, and sister, 
Nellie E. 

Lackey and children, Leon and 
Pearl. 

Lane, Rev. Mr., and family. 

Lane, F.. and family. 

Lang, five children. 

Lapeyre, James, wife and four 
children. 

Larson, H., and two children. 

Laukhuffe, Genevieve. 

Lawson, Mrs. W., and one child. 

Learman, H. L. 

Leverman, Professor. 

Lemier, Joe, and four children. 

Leon, , and two children. 

Leslie, Mrs. Gracie. 

Lettermann, W., wife and two 
children. 

Levine, Mrs. P. A., daughter and 
two sons. 

Levy, W. T. 

Lewis, Mrs. J., and six children. 

Londer, John, wife and seven chil- 
dren. 

Livingston, Mrs. 

Lloyd, Charles H., wife and one 
child. 

Locke, Mrs. Mary. 

Lockstadt, Albert, wife and three 
children. 

Loasberg, Miss Maggie. 

Lorance, Mrs. E. A. 

Love, Ed. G. 

Ludeke, Henry, wife and son. 



Luddeker, . 

Little, Mrs. J. A. 

Lepehear, J. H., wife and three 
children. 

Lanahan, Laura, Francis, Tcr- 
rence, and Claud, children of 
John Lanahan. 

Luca, Mrs. J. 

Leibe, Mrs. Mary. 

Lang, F. A., four sons and daugh- 
ter and colored nurse. 

Levy, Miss, of Houston. 

Legate, Louis, wife and son. 

Legate, Mrs. Peticles,two sons and 
two daughters. 

Legate, Christian. 

Manley, Joe, mother and two 
nieces. 

Manley, Mrs. S. R. 

Miller, Mrs., and five children (col- 
ored). 

M'Neill, Miss J., and Miss Ruby. 

Maybrook, wife and five children. 

Morris, Harry, wife and three chil- 
dren. 

Muri, Annie and Murine. 

Marcotte, Miss Pauline. 

M'Avay, Mrs. E. C. 

Mulsburger, Tony, and wife. 

Martin, Miss Annie. 

Mario, Alex. 

Massey, E., wife and child. 

Mati, Xmendio. 

M'Camish, R., wife and two 
daughters. 

M'Cluskey, Mrs. Charles, and two 
daughters. 

M'Cormick, Mrs. B., and four chil- 
dren. 

M'Millan, Mrs. E., and family. 

M'Peters, wife and children. 

Mealy, Mrs. Joseph. 

Mealy, Joseph. 

Mielhulan, Mrs, 

Medzel, John, wife and five chil- 
dren. 

Mesley, Charles (colored). 

Milan, wife and four children. 

Miller, Leslie. 

Mitchell, Louis R. (colored). 

Mitchell, Mrs. Annie and son. 

Moffett, , wife and two chil- 
dren. 

Mongan, John. 

Monoghan, Mike and family. 

Monoghan, John, and wife. 

Morrow, Mrs., and four children. 



LIST OP IDENTIFICATIONS. 



373 



Moore, Miss Maggie. 

Moore, Mrs. Nathan (colored). 

Moore, 10. W. 

Moore, two children. 

Moore, . 

Moore, 0.,wife and seven children. 

Morley, D., and wife. 

Morton, Hammond, and four chil- 
dren. 

Morse, Albert T., wife and three 
children. 

Mulcahey, two children. 

Munn, Mrs. J. W., Sr. 

Murrie, Mrs. Annie, and daughter. 

Myer, Hermann, wife and son. 

Myers, Mrs. C. J., and one child. 

Neimann, Mrs., and daughter. 

North, Miss Archie. 

Oakley, F. 

O'Connor, Mamie. 

Olds, Charlotte (colored). 

Ormond, George, and five children. 

Ohlsen, Mr. and Mrs. 

Opperman, Albert L., and wife. 

O'Connolly, Miss Mamie. 

Pett, Mrs. 

Park, Mrs., and two daughters. 

Powers, Mrs., and child. 

Palmer, Mrs. Mae, and son Lee, 6 
years old. 

Patterson, Florence. 

Pruesmith, Mrs. F., and three chil- 
dren. 

Paisley, William. 

Park, Mrs. M. L. 

Pellins, Mrs. M. 

Penny, Mrs. A., and two sons. 

Perry, Jasper, Jr., wife and two 
children. 

Peterson, Charles, wife and two 
children. 

Peterson, Mrs. J., and children. 

Phelps, Miss Ruth. 

Quinn, John. 

Raab, George W., and wife. 

Raphael, Nick. 

Reader, , and family. 

Richardson, William (colored). 

Ricke, Tony, and wife. 

Riley, Solomon, and wife. 

Ring, J., proof reader Galveston 
News, and two children. 

Riordan, Thomas. 

Reagan, Mrs. Patrick, and son. 

Rhea, Mrs. and Miss Mamie of 
Giles County, Tennessee. 

Roach, Annie. 



Roberts, , watchman. 

Robbins, Mrs. H. B., of Smith's 
Point. 

Rodefeld, William, Jr. 

Rohl, John, wife and five children. 

Roll, Mrs. A., and four children. 

Ross, daughter of Mrs. Ross of 
Houston. 

Roth, Mrs. Kate, and three chil- 
dren. 

Roe, Ada (colored). 

Rowe, Hattie (colored). 

Rotter, A. J., wife and two chil- 
dren. 

Rudder, Robert, wife and four 
children. 

Rudger, C, wife and child. 

Rughter, Lena. 

Ruce, Ida (colored). 

Rice, Fisher (colored). 

Redello, Angelo, wife and four 
children. 

Randolph, Edith. 

Rosenberg, , and baby. 

Roe, K. (colored). 

Riser, Henry, wife and three chil- 
dren. 

Riesel, Mrs. Lula, and children- 
Ray and Edna. 

Roberts, Herbert N. 

Rhodes, Miss Ella, trained nurse. 

Rose, C. M. 

Ruhler, Frank, Mrs. K., Leon and 
Albert. 

Reagan, John P. 

Rutter, H., wife and five children. 

Sandford, S., and family. 

Sawyer, Dr. John B. 

Sawyer, Tom. 

Sawyer, Mrs. Robert, and three 
children. 

Schadermantle, Maud and Randle. 

Scheirholz, W., wife and five chil- 
dren. 

Schoolfield, D. (colored). 

Schrader, Mary. 

Schuler, Mr. and Mrs., and five 
children. 

Schook, Mr. and Mrs. Robert, Jr. 

Skarke, Charles F., and son. 

Smith, Mary. 

Smith, Charles L. 

Smith, Professor F. C, wife and 

five children. 
Smith, Jacob. 

Smith. Wiley, wife and children 
(colored). 



374 



LIST OF IDENTIFICATIONS. 



Sodiche, L. . 

Solomon, Frank, and family of six. 

Solomon, Julius, and wife. 

Stacker, Mrs. Sophie. 

Stacker, Miss Alfreda. 

Stacker, George. 

Stackpole, Dr., and family. 

Steding, wife and children (seven 
in family). 

Stenzel, wife and three children. 

Stewart, Captain T., and family. 

Stewart, Miss Lester. 

Stiglitz, Miss Mamie. 

Strabo, Nick, and family, except 
one. 

Strickhausen, Mrs. 

Sweigel, George, mother and 
sister. 

Symms, two children of H. C. 

Smith, Mrs. Mary, and baby (col- 
ored). 

Scull, Mrs. Mary. 

Schutte, R., wife and two children. 

Simpson, W. R., and two children, 
James and Berry. 

Sargent, Thomas, Arthur and 
Allen. 

Sladeyce, R. L., wife and three 
children. 

Stanford, Mrs. Emma. 

Schwartz, Marie, Maggie and 
Willie. 

Seidenstucker, John. 

Schrader, Mary. 

Summers, Miss Sarah, of Cading, 
Ky. 

Smith, Jacob (unaccounted for.) 

Spann, J. C. wife and daughter. 

Turner, Mrs. 

Trizevant, Jordan. 

Thurman, Mrs. 

Taylor, Mrs. J. W. 

Thomas, Nolan and Nathan. 

Thomason, Mrs. W. B., and two 
children. 

Thomas, , wife and six chil- 
dren. 

Thornton, two children of Leigh. 

Tickel, Mrs. James, Sr. 

Trahan, Mrs. H. V., and child. 

Travers, Mrs. H. C, and son, Shel- 
don. 

Turner, Mr. and Mrs. 

Trostman, Mrs. E., and three chil- 
dren. 

Tayer, Verma and M. C. 

Unger, Mrs. E.. ^nd five children. 



Ulridge, Adelaide (colored). 

Van Buren, Ethel. 

Vaught, Edna, child of W. J. 
Vaught. 

Vitocitch, John, and family. 

Van Buren, Herman, wife and 
three children. 

Wallace, Scott. 

Wallace, Earl. 

Waldon, son of Henry. 

Walsh, J., wife and child. 

Warner, Mrs. A. S. 

Warner, Mrs. Flora. 

Warren, Martha. 

Weber, Mrs. Charles T. 

Weber, Mrs. Anna. 

Webber, Mrs. F., and family. 

Windberg, Otto, wife and child. 

Weiss, Oscar, wife and child. 

Wenderman, Mrs. 

Westway, Mrs. George. 

Wharton, . 

White, family of Walter. 

Whittle, Tom. 

Wilde, Mrs., and Miss Freida. 

Williams, Frank, wife and child. 

Wilson, Annie. 

Winscoatte, Mrs. W. D. 

White, . 

Williams, Alex. 

Windmann, Mrs. 

Winmt)ore, James, wife and two 
children. 

Winn, Mrs., and child. 

Withey, H. M. 

Wood, William (colored). 

Woods, Miss, from Joliet, 111. 

Woods, Mrs. Julia and Miss Nan- 
nie, of Joliet. 

Wright, Lulu and John. 

Wurzlow, Mrs. 

Williams, Mrs. E. C. (colored). 

Woodrow, Matilda. 

Wisrodt, August, Jr., and wife and 
two children. 

Weinberg, Otto, wife and five chil- 
dren. 

Walker, Louis D. 

Watklns, Mrs. F., Stanley, Arthur 
and Berna. 

Wallis, Lee, wife, mother, four 
children and a little orphan girl 
who formerly lived at Palestine. 

Weight, Jennie T., and Lula. 

Walker, Joe. 

Williams, Rosanna (colored). 

Winberg, Mrs. F. A., and Fritz. 



LIST OF IDENTIFICATIONS. 



375 



Yeager, William. 

Yuenz, Lillie and Henry George. 

Younger, Evelia, and two children 
(colored). 

Zeigler, Mrs., and two daughters. 

Zwigel Mrs., and two daughters. 
At the Catholic Orphanage: 

Sister Camillas, Superior. 

Mary Vincent. 

Mary Elizabeth. 

Raphael. 

Catherina. 

Genevieve. 

Felicitus. 

Mary Finbar. 

Evangeline. 

Ranignus. 

ADDITIONS TO THE DEAD ROS- 
TER FOR SATURDAY, SEP- 
TEMBER 15. 

Allison, S. B. 

Antonovitch, P. 

Augustial, P. 

Allen, E. B. 

Bowles, Samuel. 

Bowles, Mrs. S. 

Bellew, J. 

Bellew, Mrs. J. 

Bourdon, Mrs. L. A. 

Blum, Mrs. Isaac. 

Blum, Mrs. Sylvan. 

Barry, Mrs. M. E. 

Bereckman, Edw. 

Bell, Clarence. 

Buckner, Mr. 

Benston, T. 

Bergeron, Mrs. 

Banneval, Mrs. A. 

Bearman, T. 

Brown, Adolph. 

Clupp, Mrs. C. P. 

Cook, William. 

Cook, Mrs. Scott. 

Copps, Charles. 

Cowan, Mr. 

Carlton, Charles. 

Cratz, Jack. 

Cleary, Dan. 

Coddard, Alex. 

Duett, Miss M. 

Dawler, Mrs. Samuel. 

Davis, Mrs. Thomas. 

Dorrin, Mrs. C. 

Demsie, John. 

Demsie, Mrs. John. 

Edwards, A. R. C. 



Esteman, Paul. 
Falk, Mrs. 
Fuger, Frank. 
Goldman, Theo. 
Garbaldi, August. 
Hoffman, H. H. 
Hegman, Edward. 
Herr, Leonard. 
Hayman, John A. 
Holland, Mrs. J. 
Higgins, Mrs. 
Irvin, Joseph. 
Johnson, H. P. 
Jefferbrook, August. 
Jefferbrook, Mrs, Aug. 
Jones, J. H. 
Jones, Mrs. J. H. 
Kinds, Joseph. 
Kimpan, Paul. 
Keefe, T. J. 
Kalb, August. 
Kalif, Mrs. John. 
Kaiser, Louis. 
Kinsfader, Joe. 
Kelly, Florence. 
Kirky, George. 
King, Mrs. 
Karvel, Mrs. Jack. 
Lindner, Mrs. L. 
Levy, Major W. T. 
Lossing, Mrs. H. 
M'Bwan, John H., Jr. 
Massey, Tom. 
Martyn, Mrs. R. 
Mott, Mrs. Frank 
Martin, Jim. 
Marcoburro. 
Miller, Joe. 
Meyer, Joe. 
McGovern, James. 
McHale, John. 
Menard, Miss Mary. 
Mellor, Robert. 
Morton, Mrs. A. 
Morton, Henry. 
Miller, Mrs. 
Martin, Herman. 
McGuire, John. 
McPherson, Robert. 
Marcotte, Miss P. 
McVay, Mrs. E. C. 
Nick, oysterman. 
Nelson, Mrs. 
Opiliz, Anita. 
O'Keefe, Mrs. C. J. 
Olsen, Steve. 
Olson, Thomas H, 



376 



LIST OF IDENTIFICATIONS. 



ProTOst, James. 
Plotomey. 
Plitt, Hermann. 
Potoff, Charles. 
Phelps, Ruth. 
Peklinge, Mrs. 
Pinto, Mrs. Tony. 
Peco, Leon. 
Pierson, Miss Mary. 
Pierson, Alice. 
Pierson, Frank. 

Quarrovich, . 

Rummelin, Ed. 
Reagan, H. J. 
Raleigh, Miss Nellie. 
Reamann, Mrs. 
Redford, Mattie. 
Ritter, Mrs. W. M. 
Roehm, W. W. F. 

Ravey, . 

Randolph, Edith. 

Rosenberg, . 

Rurehmond, Professor. 
Rurehmond, Mrs. 
Riser, Hy. 
Riser, Mrs. Hy. 
Riesel, Mrs. Lulu. 
Schuler, A. 
Steager, J. 
Smith, 0. P. 
Senott, Maggie. 
Schultz, Charles. 
Schultz, Charles C. 
Schultz, Fred. 
Schultz, Mrs. F. 
Scull, Mrs. Mary. 
Simpson, W. R. 
Sargent, Thomas. 
Sargent, Arthur. 
Sargent, Allen. 
Stanford, Mrs. E. 
Tuckett, Walter. 
Tayer, Verma. 
1 ayer, M. C. 
Williams, Mrs. E. C. 
Woodrow, Matilda. 
Waring, Mrs. 
Wisrodt, August, Jr. 
Wisrodt, Mrs. A., Jr. 
Walker, L. D. 
Watkins, Mrs. F. 
Watkins, Stanley. 
Watkins, Arthur. 
Watkins, Berna. 
Wallis, Lee. 
Wallis, Mrs. L. C. 
Weight, Jennie T. 



Weight, Lula. 
Williams, R. 
Woodward, E. C, Jr. 
Williams, Rosanna. 
Walters, F. A. 
Wicke, Mrs. 
Wegner, Fritz. 
Zippi, J. M. 
Zumberg, Gus. 

The members of Battery O, 
First Artillery, U. S. A., lost in the 
storm were: 

Andrews, Greorge F., private. 
Andrews, William L., private. 
Cantner, James W., cook. 
Delaney, William A., private. 
Downey, Peter, private. 
George, Hugh R., first sergeant. 
Glaffey, John, private. 
Hess, Fred, private. 
Hunt, Frank W., private. 
Kelly, John, private. 
Lewis, Everett A., private. 
Link, George, mechanic. 
Marsh, James A., sergeant. 
Mitchell, Benjamin D., private. 
McArthur, Malcolm, mechanic. 
Peterson, George, private. 
Rander, Leopold, private. 
Roberts, Samuel, corporal. 
Sauerber, William S., private. 
Seffers, Otto, private. 
Vantilbruch, Benjamin, private. 
Wheeler, Wadsworth B., private 
White, Herbert R., private. 
Wilhite, Carvan M., private. 
Wright, Sidney, private. 

Hospital corps: 
Forrest, Samuel, private. 
Gossage, Joseph, private. 
Mcllvene, Elright, private. 

Few of the bodies of the dead 
regulars were ever found. Twelve 
miles down Galveston Island the 
following were killed: 
John Schneider's whole family. 
Henry Schneider's whole family. 
Fritz Opper's whole family. 
William Schroeder's wife and 

seven children. 
Sam Kemp (colored) lost all his 

family. 
Fritz Boehle's wife. 
Ansie Boehl lost wife and three 

daughters. 
Ostermayer and wife. 

Only about six houses remained 



LIST or IDENTIFICATIONS. 



37.7i 



between South Galveston and the 

city limits. 

Following is a revised list of 

dead outside of Galveston: 
AT ARCADIA. 

James Bodecker and son. 

James Wofford. 
Eleven lives were lost here. 
AT ALVIN. 

Misses M. and S. M. Johnson. 

Mrs. Wilhelm, sister of the Misses 
Johnson. 

Mrs. Hawley, killed by being 
blown against a post. 
ON CHOCOLATE CREEK. 

Mr. Gilaspey. 

Mrs. J. W. Collins. 

Mrs. S. 0. Lewis. 

Mrs. Proctor, of Rosenburg, killed 
in Santa Fe wreck. 

AT MARVIL. 

Mr. Bumpass. 

H. H. Richardson, Jr. 

Mrs. Jules A. Tix, of Galveston 
County. 

ON MUSTANG CREEK. 

J. McLain. 
Twelve were lost altogether. 
AT ANGLETON. 

Feklin Williams. 

E. J. Duff and son. 

Three unknown. 

AT BROOKSIDE. 

W. B. Smith's daughter, aged 16. 

Alice Leonard (colored). 
AT COLUMBIA. 

Perry Campbell and three un- 
known negroes. 

AT DICKINSON. 

Three ladies, mother and two 
daughters and seven unknown 
men. 

AT HITCHCOCK. 

William Johnson and wife. 

William and Robinson Linnie. 

Mrs. Pietze. 

Mary Monenla. 

Mr. Palmero, wife and five chil- 
dren. 

Unknown woman, aged 45. 

Unknown boy, aged 14. 

George Young, wife and four chil- 
dren. 

T. W. O'Connor and wife of Alvin, 
Miss. 



Mrs. J. W. Collins. 

W. P. Hawley. 

Son of Joseph Bodecker. 

Son of James Bodecker. 

Hiram Johnson and wife. 

William Robinson. 

Domenio Child. 

Mrs. "Joe" Meyer. 

Several unknown found on the 
prairie. 

Three unknown found on a fence. 
AT LEAGUE CITY. 

W. A. Williams. 

Miss Letitia Schultz and Mrs. 
Sophia Schultz. 

AT MORGAN POINT. 

Louis Bracquail. 

"Billy" Jones. 

AT PATTON. 

B. Landrum, wife and five chil- 
dren. 

Aikins, wife and child. 

Mrs. Slatom and child. 

Traney Lenton, wife and five 
daughters. 

A. Vinson, wife and child, of 
Liverpool, Texas. 

John Gluspey. 

AT QUINTANA. 

Fifteen convicts. 

Six bodies picked up on beach, be- 
lieved to have floated over from 
Galveston. 

AT ROSENBERG. 

J. L. Cantrell. 

Rev. Mr. Watson. 

Coleman Norman, of Needville. 

Mrs. Robert Dawson's infant. 

Child of Mrs. Graggiss. 

Child of Mrs. Kirkpatrick. 

Child of Mrs. Palmer. 

Charles Scott. 

Mary Hughes. 

AT RICHMOND. 

Eighteen unknown. 

AT SANDY POINT. 

Eight negroes, names unknown. 
AT SEABROOKE. 

Mrs. Fred May. 

Mrs. P. Pflinger. 

Mrs. Vincent and three children. 

Mrs. S. K. Milhenny. 

Haven Milhenny. 

Child of Rice Davids. 

Mrs. Dr. Nicholson. 



378 



LIST OF IDENTIFICATIONS. 



Mrs. Jane Woodlock. 

Two unknown. 

AT VIRGINIA POINT. 

Two children of Mrs. Wright. 

Mrs. Leon Cleary and three chil- 
dren. 

James Sylvester. 

Three negro men. 

Two unknown negro women. 

Louis Domengeux. 

AT MOSSING SECTION. 

Foreman Kirby, with fourteen 
white men. 

AT VELASCO. 

Rev. Father Keene. 

L. W. Perry. 

"Sam" Bliss. 

Mrs. Parker and granddaughter. 
AT WALLER. 

Mrs. Mary Proctor, of Rosenberg, 
killed in Santa Fe wreck. 
The number of those known to 

have met death outside of Galves- 
ton aggregated 1,000. 

THOSE IDENTIFIED SATUR- 
DAY AND SUNDAY, SEP- 
TEMBER 15 AND 16. 

Augustine, Pasquila and wife. 

Anderson, Nelson. 

Agin, George and child. 

Anderson, Henry. 

Alexander, Annie and Christian. 

Almeras, children of Thomas. 

Alpin, Geo., and wife. 

Amundsen, Emil, wife and child. 

Anderson, Ned, wife and two chil- 
dren. 

Anderson, Amanda, colored. 

Anderson, Mrs. Carl, and four 
children. 

Anizen, Mrs. Frank, and two chil- 
dren. 

Armstrong, Mrs. Dora, and four 
children. 

Azteanza, Captain Sylvester. 

Alaway, Fred, and family. 

Bradford, F. H., and family. 

Boygoyne, Mrs. Francis, and son. 

Burke, J. G., and wife. 

Burns, Marco, wife and four chil- 
dren. 

Bernerville, Mrs. Antonio, and 
two children. 

Badger, Otto. 

Balliman, Gus, Irene and John. 



Balseman, Mrs. 

Barns, Mrs. Louise. 

Barry, Mrs., and six children. 

Balje, Otto. 

Batteste, Horace. 

Baubch, William, wife and two 
children. 

Bell, George, wife and four chil- 
dren. 

Bell, Miss Mattie. 

Bell, Henry (colored). 

Berger, Theodore, wife and child. 

Bergman, Mrs. E. J., and daughter. 

Bierman, Frederick. 

Blackson, baby of William. 

Block, son of Charles. 

Blum, Isaac. 

Borden, J. M., and wife. 

Blum, Sarah and Jennie. 

Bornkessel, T. C. of United States 
weather bureau, wife and child. 

Boske, Mrs. Charles and two sons. 

Bowen, . 

Branch, Allen (colored). 

Brandies, Fritz, v/ife and four 
children. 

Brandon, Lottie. 

Britton, James (colored). 

Brooks, J. T. 

Brown, Adolph, wife and two chil- 
dren. 

Bryan; Mrs. L. W. and daughter. 

Buckley, Selma and Blanche. 

Burgoyne, Douglas. 

Bourke, J. K. 

Burrell, Elivie and two children 
(colored). 

Bureel, Mrs. C. (colored). 

Baxter, Mrs. George and two chil- 
dren. 

Chambers, Ada. 

Curtis, Jane, two children and her 
mother-in-law (colored). 

Cleary, Mrs. Dan and five children. 

Chenivere, Mrs. 

Christian, Paul and wife. 

Clancy, Pat wife and three chil- 
dren. 

Clauson, Katie. 

Cleary, Mrs. Leon and one child. 

Cleveland, George and wife. 

Cleveland, Roy and Seneca. 

Close, J. M. 

Coleman, Mandy and child (col- 
ored). 

Connell, William. 

Cook, W. S., wife and six children. 



LIST OF JDENTIIUCATIONS. 



3Y9 



Cornell, Mrs. Porter and two 

daughters (colored). 
Cort, Infant of E. L. (colored). 
Cramer, Miss Bessie. 
Credo, child of Anthony. 
Cromwell, Mrs. and three daugh- 
ters. 
Curtis, Mrs. J. C. and one child 

(colored). 
Curtis, Lula (colored). 
Cushman, John Henry. 
Daniels, Mrs. E., three girls, one 

son, two grandchildren. 
Davis, Annie N. 
Davis, Henry T. (colored). 
Daley, Nicholas. 
Darby, Charles. 
Davis, Irene. 
Deegan, Haddy. 
Delaney, Joe. 

Delano, Asa P., wife and children. 
Deltz, M. and two sons. 
Dempsey, Mr. and Mrs. Robert. 
Dixon, Mrs. Louisa and children. 
Dinsdale, wife and two children. 
Dittman, Mrs. F., and son. 

Dore, , an old Frenchman. 

Dore, Deo, Jr., wife and two chil- 
dren. 
Garrene, Mr. and Mrs., and two 

children. 
Dorsett, B., and family of five. 
Dotto, Mike, wife and six children. 
Doyle, Jim. 
Drecksmith, D. 
Dreckschmidt, H. 

Drew, H. A. 

Duffard, A. 

Duffy, Mrs. 

Dunant, Frank, Sr. 

Dunton, Mrs. Adelaide. 

Dunkins, Mrs. 

Duntonovitch, John and Pinckey. 

Darkey, John and wife and daugh- 
ter Belle. 

Edmonds, Mrs. 

Eberhard, F., and wife. 

Eberg, Mrs. Kate. 

Eckel, William, wife and son. 

Edmondson, Fred and father. 

Eichler, W. 

Eichler, Mrs. A. 

Eismann, Howard. 

Ellis, John, and family of four. 

Ello,' Joseph, wife and two chil- 
dren. 

Englehart, Louis. 



Englehart, Mrs. Ludwig. 
Englehart, G. C. 

Evans, Mrs. Katy and two daugh- 
ters. 
Everhart, J. H., wife and Miss 

Lena and Guy. 
Ferrell, Mrs., wife of Rev., and 

three children. 
Falke, Joseph, and three children. 
Faucette, Mrs. Robert. 
Feigle, John, Sr., and wife. 
Feigle, Mabel. 

Flanagan, Mrs. Martin, and child. 
Foreman, Mrs. Mamie, Cassie, 

Thomas, Amos, Webster. 
Franklin, George. 
Franck, Mrs. Augusta. 

Freidolf, , wife and son. 

Freilag, , and son Harry. 

Frohne, Mrs. Charles and two chil- 
dren. 
Frye, Mrs. W. H. 
Fryer, Bessie Bell. 
Gwynn, Mrs. D. 
Gordon, Sol and two children. 
Gabell, Mr. and Mrs. (colored). 
Gaines, Mrs. Tillie J. and two 

daughters. 
Gallishaw, five children. 
Garrett, Ed. 
Garrigan, James. 
Garrigan, Joseph. 
Garth, Johnnie and Gussie. 
Center, Robert. 
Gensen, four children. 
George, first sergeant of Battery O. 
George, Charles and wife. 
Gillis, Dan. 

Gordon, Asker and baby. 
Grant, Fred (colored). 
Grant, Mamie E. (colored). 
Gother, Mrs. Fred. 
Grumberg, Alex, supposed to be- 
long to life-saving station. 
Haag, three children of Mrs. B. 
Hagen, George W. 
Hall, Joe and family (colored). 
Hansel, Dick, wife and three chil- 
dren. 
Harris, Tim. 
Harris, Thomas, wife and three 

children. 
Harris, Robert, wife and one child. 
Harris, George. 
Harry, Mrs. (colored). 
Harris, Mrs. W. R. and son. 



380 



LIST OF IDENTIFICATIONS. 



Hayes, child of Mrs. Eva of Tay- 
lor, Texas. 

Half stein, John, Jr., (child). 

Helfstein, Sophie and Lily, chil- 
dren of W. 

Hemann, Mrs. R. M. and child. 

Hess, Bugler. 

Hester, Charlie. 

Hoarer, Martin, wife and son. 

Hoch, Mrs. and three sons, Mike, 
Willie and Louis. 

Holland, James H., wife and son 
Willie and grandson Otis. 

Holland, (colored). 

Holland, Mrs. James. 

Holmes, child of Laura (colored). 

Hubner, Edward and Antoinette. 

Hudson, Mrs. 

Hughes, Mrs. Mattie. 

Hughes, Stuart C. 

Hughes, John. 

Hull, Charlie (colored). 

Huzza, Charles, wife and four chil- 
dren. 

Hyman, Anthony. 

Hybach, Charles and son. 

Jaeger, Mr. and Mrs. and two chil- 
dren. 

Jackson, Mrs. J. W. and two chil- 
dren. 

Jamoneck, Ed., wife and two chil- 
dren, all of Dallas. 

Jasper, two children of Perry 
(colored). 

Jefferbock, Mr. and Mrs. Augusta. 

Jerrel, J., wife and four children 
and mother-in-law. 

Jones, Frank, son and Fred (col- 
ored). 

Jones, Mrs. Matilda and daughter. 

Johnson, Peter, wife and five chil- 
dren. 

Johnson, Mrs. P. and children. 

Johnson, R. D., wife and two chil- 
dren. 

Johnson, Mrs. Genevive and 
daughter. 

Johnson, W. J., wife and two chil- 
dren. 

Johnson, Mrs. Ben and three chil- 
dren. 

Johnson, Mike, wife, child and 
mother-in-law. 

Johnson, Harry. 

Johnson, Mrs. H. B. 

Johnson, A. S., wife and six chil- 
drea 



Junemann, Charles, wife and 
daughter. 

Kunker, William, wife and child. 

Kace, Mrs. John and four children. 

Kennedy, Benton, wife and three 
children. 

Kemp, Pearl C. (colored). 

Kemp, Mrs. (colored). 

Kerpan, Mr. and Mrs. Paul. 

King, Mrs. (colored). 

King, Rosa J. (colored). 

Kindlund, Edgar. 

Knowles, Mrs. W. T. and three 
children. 

Kimley, Mrs. John and family. 

Kinsell, E. 

Kreza, Joseph, wife and three sons. 

Kurpan, Paul and wife. 

Kaiser, Louie, wife and three chil- 
dren. 

Kehler, Mrs. Fred and two sons. 

KeisB, Mrs. John. 

Keiss, Miss Judie. 

Keiss, Mrs. Louise and four chil- 
dren. 

Keiffer, wife and daughter. 

Kelsy, James. 

Lackey, Miss Pearl. 

Lackey, Alma. 

Lackey, Robert. 

Lackey, Mrs., four children and 
daughter-in-law. 

Lafayette, Mrs., and two children. 

Lapierce, James, wife and five 
children. 

Larson, H. and two children. 

Laukhuff, Genevieve. 

Lashley, Mrs. Dave. 

Lausen, August and three chil- 
dren. 

Lawson, Mrs. W., and Miss Oralie. 

Lawson, Mr. and Mrs. and child. 

Legue, three children of Mrs. Lil- 
lie. 

Lee, Captain G. A. and wife. 

Lenker, Tom. 

Lennard, Fred. 

Lemira, Joseph, wife and four 
children 

Leon, and two children. 

Leslie, Miss Gracie. 

Lewis, Mrs. C. A. (colored). 

Lewis, Mrs. Jake, and six children. 

Lewis, Agnes (colored). 

Lindgren, John, wife and seven 
children. (Miss Lillie, eldest^ 
saved). 



LIST 01' WENrilUCATlONS. 



a.^i 



T.loyd, Buck and wife. 

J^ocke, Mrs. Mary. 

Lockhart, Mrs. Charles, and two 
children. 

Losica, Mrs. F., daughter, three 
children and sou-in-law. 

Lucas, Mrs. William and two sons. 

Lucas, two children of Mrs. David. 

Lucas, John and two children. 

Ludke, Henry, wife and son. 

Ludewig, E. A. and mother. 

Lumberg, Will and Lena. 

Lumber, Gus, wife and nine chil- 
dren. 

Lynch, A. 

Lynch, James and wife. 

Lynch, Ed and family. 

Lyster, W. W. 

Miller, Joe and children. 

Munn, Mrs. S. S. 

McCauley, J. B. and wife. 

Macklin, W. L., wife and three 
children. 

Maudy, Mrs. and daughter (col- 
ored). 

Matson, Grace and three children 
(colored). 

Martin, Frank, wife and son. 

Maquelte, Mrs. Pauline. 

Maxwell, Mrs. 

McAmish, S. A., wife and two 

daughters. 
McAughlar, Ira (colored). 
McCulloch, A. R. (colored). 
McManus, Mrs. W. H. 
McMillan, Mrs. M. J. 
McNeill, Mrs. and baby. 
McNeal, Mrs. James and child. 
McPeters, wife and two children. 
McPherson, Robert (colored). 
Merley, Mrs. John. 
Mealy, Joseph. 
Megna, Mrs. Joe. 
Megna, child of Mike. 
Menzella, John, wife and five chil- 
dren. 
Meric, Eugene and mother. 
Meric, John, wife and children. 
Mestry, Charlotte (colored). 
Meyer, Chris, missing. 
Miller, wife and six children. 
Moran, James and wife. 
Morrow, Mrs. and four children. 
Moore, Mrs. Nathan. 
Moore, Estelle (colored). 

Moore, . 

Morley, D. and wife. 



Morris, Harry, wife and three 
children. 

Morton, Hammond and four chil- 
dren. 

Mott, B. F. 

Mulcahey, two children of J., of 
Houston. 

Mulholland, Mrs. Louise. 

Mullock, Henry, wife and child. 

Mundyne, Mrs. Meria. 

Murie, Mrs. Annie and daughter. 

Meyer, Herman, wife and son 
Willie. 

Myers, Mrs. C. J. and one child. 

Napoleon, Henry, wife and sister 
(colored). 

Otis, Charlotte (colored). 

O'Dowd, D. J. 

O'Keefe, C J. and wife. 

Olsen, Ed. 

Oterson, A. A. and wife. 

Ostermayer, Henry and wife. 

O'Shaughnessy, Pauline. 

Perry, Mrs. H. M. and son Clayton, 
Houston. 

Puesnutt, Mrs. Fred and three 
children. 

Paetz, Mrs. Lena. 

Paskall, August and wife. 

Pashelag, Miss Louisa. 

Pashelag, Mrs. E. and three chil- 
dren. 

Paysee, Mrs. Henry and two chil- 
dren. 

Pauly, Mr. and Mrs. 

Peetz, Mrs. Captain J. J. and eld- 
est and youngest daughters. 

Pellenze, Mrs. and mother. 

Perkins, Albert (colored). 

Perkins, Arthur (colored). 

Perkins, wife and grandson (col 
ored). 

Peterson, Mrs. J. and children. 

Peterson. K. C, wife and child. 

Pettit, W. B. 

Pettingill, W. H. and wife and 
three sons. Walter W., James 
and Norman (missing). 

Pilford, W., Mexican Cable Com- 
pany, and children, Madele, 
Willie, Jack and Georgianna. 

Quowvich, John and four others 
unknown. 

Quester, Bessie. 

Quinn, Thomas. 

Quinn, John, engineer (missing). 

Rockford, William and wife. 



382 



LIST OF IDENTIFICATIONS. 



Ryan, Joseph, wife and child. 

Raleigh, Miss Lelia. 

Rayburn, Crawford. 

Rattisseau, A. and wife and three 
children. 

Rattisseau, Mrs. W. L. and three 
children. 

Reagan, Mrs. John J. 

Reagan, W. J., wife and three 
children. 

Rein, wife and daughter. 

Reinhart, Agnes and Helen, 
daughters of John. 

Rhone, Lulu L. (colored). 

Richardson, S. W. and wife. 

Richamderes, Mrs. Irene and baby. 

Riley, Mrs. W. and two children. 

Rimmelin, Edward H. and wife. 

Riordan, Thomas. 

Ritzeler, Mrs. 

Rhymes, Thomas, wife and two 
children. 

Roach, Annie. 

Roberts, "Shorty." 

Ritchford, Ben and wife. 

Roemer, C. C. and wife. 

Roemer, Elizabeth, wife of A. C. 

Roehm, Mr. and Mrs. William and 
two children. 

Rogers, Blanche Donald, niece of 
D. B. 

Ross, 9-year-old child of Mrs. 
Ross, of Houston. 

Rosse, Mrs. L. and three children. 

Rossalee, B., wife and three chil- 
dren. 

Roth, Mrs. Kate and three chil- 
dren. 

Rowe, Mrs. and three children. 

Rudder, Robert, wife and four 
children. 

Rudger, C, wife and child. 

Ruenbuhl, Johnnie. 

Ruther, A., mother and father. 

Ruhrmond, Prof., wife and two 
children. 

Rust, Henry and three children. 

Redelli, Angelo, wife and four 
children. 

Sanford, Southwick, wife and 
child. 

Schmidt, Mrs. F. and son Richard. 

Schmidt, Richard J. 

Schneider, J. F., wife and six chil- 
dren. 

Schoolfield, (colored). 

Schoolfield, Isaac. 



Schutte, , wife and two chil- 
dren. 

Schutze, Mr. and Mrs. 

Scott, Hugh (colored). 

Seals, Wallace D. (colored). 

Seats, Sarah N. (colored). 

Sedgv/ick, child. 

Seibel, Mrs. Julius. 

Seibel, Lizzie. 

Seibel, Mrs. Jacob and son Julius. 

Seixas, Mrs. E., Arma, Lucille, 
Cecilia. 

Severt, John and wife. 

Shaper, Henry, wife and two sons. 

Sherman, Albert. 

Skelton, Mrs. Emma and two chil- 
dren. 

Sharke, Charles F. 

Smith, Jim, prize fighter. 

Simerville, S. B. and wife (col- 
ored). 

Sourbien, Battery 0. 

Slayton, Mrs. Carey B. (colored). 

Steeb, J. and wife and two chil- 
dren. 

Stevens, Frank, Leo, Jerold and 
Edward, sons of T. J. 

Stewart, Captain P. and family. 

Stilkolitch, Mannie. 

Stimman, Robert, wife and child. 

Strabe, Nick and family, except 
one. 

Strickhausen, Mrs. 

Strunk, William, wife and six 
children. 

Sudden, Clara (colored). 

Swartsbach, child of A. 

Swickel, mother and three sisters 
of John. 

Sylvester, Miss. 

Simms, two children of H. G. 

Thomas, Miss Daisy. 

Tavinette, Antoinet. 

Terrell, Mrs. Q. V. and four chil- 
dren (colored). 

Thomas, Newell and Nathaniel. 

Thompson, Mr., wife and three 
children. 

Thurman, Mrs. (colored). 

Tiggs, Lavina and daughter (col- 
ored). 

Tilsman, Robert, wife and five 
children. 

Tinbush, and family. 

Trickhausen, Mrs. 

Trostman, Mrs. and three chil- 
dren. 



LIST 01' IDENTIFICATIONS. 



383 



Tucker, Mr. and Mrs. and one 
child. 

Turner, Mr. and Mrs. 

Udell, Oliver, wife and child. 

Uhl, Mrs. Christopher and six 

children. 
Ulridge, Val, Mrs. and six chil- 
dren. 

Van, Miss Mary. 

Vining, Mrs. Annie and four chil- 
dren. 

Viscaviteh, Magdelena, daughter 
of Mrs. 

Wemberg, O. M., wife and five 
children. 

Winn, Mrs. and grandchild. 

Wallace, Scott and Earl. 

Wade, Mrs. Hillie (colored). 

Wade, Hettie and husband (col- 
ored). 

Walden, Samuel, son of W. H. 
(colored). 

Waldgren, Mr. 

Walker, Mrs. H. V. 

Walter, Mrs. Charles and three 
children. 

Walsh, Joseph, wife and three 
children. 

Walters, Gus. 

Waring, Mr. (colored). 

Warrah, Martin. 

Waters, three nephews of James. 

Watkins, child of P. 

Watson, Judge, wife and two chil- 
dren. 

Webber, Mrs. and family. 

Weber, W. J., wife and two chil- 
dren. 

Wester, George and Joe. 

Weidmang, Fritz and wife, Paul 
and mother. 

Weiss, Prof. 

Walsh, Mrs. 

Westaway, Mrs. George. 

Westerman, Mrs. A. 

Westman, Mrs. 

White, James, wife and babe. 

Wicke, Lena. 

Wilke, C. O. 

Wilcox, child. 

Wilde, Miss Freda. 

Williams, Mrs. Mary. 

Wilson, Bertha (colored). 

Withey, H. 

Witt. C. H., wife and two children. 

Wood, Mrs. R. N. 

Wood, Eddie and Burley (col- 
ored). 



Wood, Mrs. Caroline and two 
daughters, Mary and Kate. 

Wuchnach, M., wife and two chil- 
dren. 

Young, Mrs., two daughters and 
one son. 

The following, previously re- 
ported dead, were saved: 

Coddou, Alex, Jr., Ray and Eu- 
gene, whose father and three 
brothers were lost, 

Cato, William. 

Hunter, Mrs. J. J. 

Sommer, Miss Helen T. 

LIST OP IDENTIFICATIONS 
FOR MONDAY, SEPT. 17. 

Allen, Mrs. Kate. 

Allen, Mrs. Alex and five chil- 
dren. 

Anderson, Mrs. Dora. 

Anderson, Mrs. Sam (colored). 

Anderson, Nick and two sons. 

Andrei, Mrs. and three children. 

Anlonovich, Eddie. 

Baker, Florence (colored). 

Baker, Mrs. and three children 
(colored). 

Baldwin, Sallie (colored). 

Bastor, Mrs. Clara. 

Bostford, Edwin and wife. 

Bostford, Kate. 

Brady, and wife. 

Brandus, Fritz and wife and four 
children. 

Burns, Mrs. 

Bushon, Hisom. 

Boyd, Andy and family, on beach. 

Brophey, M., and mother of Peter. 

Calvert, George W., wife and 
daughter. 

Campbell, Mrs. Emma. 

Caroline, Mrs. Alice and three 
children. 

Cheles, William and wife. 

Chester, Paul and wife. 

Christian, John. 

Grain, Anna M. 

Grain, Charles. 

Grain, Maggie McCree. 

Grain. Mrs. C. D. 

Garter, A. J. 

Carter, Mrs. Celeste. 

Davis, E. 

Debner, William, wife and three 
children. 

Doherty, Mrs. 

Dagert, Mrs. and children. 



S84c 



LIST OF IDENTIFICATIONS. 



Floehr, Mrs. 

Hoesington, H. A. 

Hurt, Walter, wife, two children 

and two servants. 
Iwan, Mrs. A. 
Jones, John A. and wife. 
Johnson, Leonard, wife and four 

children. 
Joughin, Tony. 
Jones, E. B. 
Kaufman, Mrs. Eliza. 
Keller and family. 
Kolbe, infant of C. B. 
Kleiman, Joe, wife and two work- 
men. 
Kroener, Will, Sophie and Florie. 

Kupper, . 

Larson, H. and two children. 

Luckenbell, B. E. and wife. 

Lott, Walker C, wife and two 

children. 
Martin, Miss Annie. 
Manly, Joen, Sr., mother and twO' 

nieces. 
McCauley, J. and wife. 
Neuwiller, William, wife and 

three children. 
Newton, Mrs. J. M. and child. 
Oakley, F. 

Poland, Ed. and sister. 
Pryor, Ed., wife and four chil- 
dren, of St. Joseph, Mo. 
Patrick, Mariah. 
Powers, Carrie V. 
Patter, C. H. and baby. 
Quinn, Mrs. Frank and son 

Claude. 
Ripley, Henry. 
Roberts, John T. 
Scholea, Richard, wife, son Frank 

and adopted daughter, Tilla 

Meyer. 
Sommer, Joe, wife and child. 
Spaeter, Mrs. Fred. 
Spaeter, Otilla. 
Slayton, Mrs. Carrie (colored). 

Steeb, , wife and child. 

Steinbnnk, Edward, George and 

Arthur. 
Sweikel, mother and three sisters 

of John. 
Steinforth, Mrs. Emma. 
Stillman, Lily. 
Stevens, Frankie and Lee, two 

boys of T. J. 
Stewart, Miss Lester. 
Swenson, Mrs. Mary K. 



Simons, two children of H. G. 

Tavenett, Anton. 

Thompson, Milton. 

Thompson, wife and four children. 

Tickle, H. P., wife and two chil- 
dren. 

Told, Subie. 

Torr, T. C. 

Toothacre, Miss Etta. 

Tozen, Mrs. G. M. and Miss Bella. 

Washington, John and five chil- 
dren. 

Wiede, wife and five children. 

White, Willie. 

White, family of Walter. 

Williams, Ed. 

Zickler, Mrs. Fred and two chil- 
dren. 

Zinkie, August and two children. 

Zwansig, Adolph, Sr., Richard, 
Herman and three daughters of 
Adolph. 

ROLL FOR TUESDAY, SEPTEM- 
BER 18. 

Andrews, Mrs. 

Allen, William, wife and three 
children. 

Allardyce, Mrs. R. L., and three 
children. 

Allen, Claude. 

Allen, Herbert. 

Allen, Lucy. 

Bradfoot and wife. 

Brown, William. 

Briscal, Alfred, and two children. 

Burkhead, Mrs., and daughter. 

Burns, Mrs. P., and daughter 
Mary. 

Byman, Mr. and Mrs. George. 

Clancy, Pat, wife and five chil- 
dren. 

Colsberg, Frank G.,wife and baby. 

Chester, Frank, Ellen and Mary 
(colored). 

Christianson, Miss Annie, of 
Shreveport (who was visiting 
George Dorian). 

Costly, Sanders, and wife and 
child of Alexander Costly (col- 
ored). 

Cowan, Isabella, and daughter. 

Calloum, Antona, wife and four 
children. 

Cornell, Mrs. Eliza. 
"Dago Joe" and wife Mary. 



LIST OF IDENTIFICATIONS. 



385 



Bearing, William, wife and six 
children. 

Devoti, Joe, and three children. 

Devoti, Mrs. Julia, and two chil- 
dren. 

Devoti, Louis. 

Devoti, "Doc." 

Durrant, Frank. 

Dumond, Joseph, and wife, 

Dazet, Mrs. Leon, and child. 

Eaton, F. B. 

Fachan, family gone; he is alive. 

Falk, Mrs. Julius, and five chil- 
dren. 

Falk, Gustavo. 

Felsmann, Richard (blacksmith), 
wife and five children. 

Fritz, wife and two children. 

Graus, wife and two children. 

Hall, Chase (colored). 

Harris, John, wife and two chil- 
dren. 

Haucius, Mrs., and one child. 

Hermann, W. J. 

Herman, Mrs., and five children. 

Hylenberg, Jacob, wife and child. 

Jerrel, J., wife and four children. 

Jordan, Charles. 

James and children. 

Jackson, wife and daughter, 
Mabel. 

Kaper, August, wife and one child. 

Keogh, John, wife and four chil- 
dren. 

Keogh, Mrs., and three children. 

Koch, William, Sr. 

Kothe, William Q. 

Leagett, Mrs., and three children. 

Leaget, Mrs. Celia, and family of 
six. 

Letts, Captain, wife and two chil- 
dren and sister. 

Lynch, Peter. 

Mackey, Mrs. W. G., and four chil- 
dren. 

Maclin, J. D., wife and seven chil- 
dren. 

McCann, Billy, wife and four chil- 
dren. 

Maupin, Joseph. 

McDonald, Mrs. Mary, and son. 

McEwen, John. 

McGraw, Peter, and wife. 

McNeil, Hugh, and baby and Miss 
Jennie McNeil. 

McPeters, Mrs., and two children. 

McVeigh, Miss Lorena. 



Miller, Frank. 

Miller, wife and four children. 

Midlegge, August, wife and five 

children. 
Mellor (better known as Miller), 

Robert. 
Meyer, Henry, and four children, 
Moore, Cecelia, Loraine, Vera and 

Mildred, children of Mr. and 

Mrs. Louis Moore. 
Morseburger, Antonia, and wife. 

Moserger, , 

Middleburger, George, wife and 

three children. 
Middleberger, John, wife and 

three children. 
Miller, E. 0. 
Moore, Mrs. Dock, 
Neal, a fisherman. 
O'Neill, James and Frank, sons of 

James. 
O'Neill, Lawrence. 
O'Neill, wife and five children, an 

oysterman, with four hired men. 
Piatt, Mrs. S. 
Peterson, George, soldier, wife 

and four children. 
Peters, Robert. 
Peters, Rudolph. 

Potter, C. H., and little daughter. 
Praker, William. 

Preussner, Mrs., and three chil- 
dren. 
Pischos, Mr. and Mrs. 
Quinn, Robert, wife and six chil- 
dren. 
Rattiseau, P. A. 
Rattiseau, J. B., wife and four 

children. 
Rattiseau, C. A., wife and seven 

children. 
Rattisseau, Mrs. J. L., and three 

children. 
Raw, Mr. 
Ray, Miss Susie. 
Roberts. Herbert M. 
Mrs. Rose's baby. 
Rosen, Mrs., and four children. 
Rudireker, and three women. 
Ryan, Mrs. Mary. 
Scarborough, Harry, a fisherman. 
Scott, Hughie (colored). 
Ricker, John. 
Speck, Captain. 
Summers, Mrs. M. S. 
Tian, Mrs. Clement, and three 

children. 



38G 



LIST OF IDENTIFICATIONS, 



Tripo, an oysterman. 

Turner, Angeline (colored). 

Wallace, and wife. 

Warnke, Mr. and Mrs., and three 

children. 
Washington, Johnnie, and family, 

colored. 
Weit, Mr., and three children. 
Walker, L, D., stepson and W. J. 

Hughes. 
Weeden, Lou, wife and four chil- 
dren. 
Wurzlow, Mrs. Annie. 
One laborer at Dr. Fry's dairy. 
Anderson, C. L., wife, and chil- 
dren. 
Burns, Mrs. M. E., and daughter. 
Boening, William, wife and three 

children. 
Burwell, T. M. 

Buren, Larzen, wife and five chil- 
dren. 
Bernardoni, John. 
Chouke, Mrs. Charles and child. 
Connolly, Mrs. Ellen. 
Cook, Mrs. Ida (colored). 
Cook, Henry (colored). 
Deboer, P. G., and wife. 
Doyle, James. 

Dickinson, Mrs. Mary, and chil- 
dren (colored). 
Ellis, Mrs. Henry (colored). 
Edwards, Mrs. Jane, and daughter 

(colored). 
Falco, J. A. C. 
Fagan, Frank. 
Fager, Mrs. Frances. 
Frank, Miss Anna. 
Galmer, H. H., and wife, 
Geist, wife and daughter. 
Colmer, H. H., wife and five chil- 
dren. 
Heusse, W. A., and wife. 
Hoch, Mike. 

Heare, L., wife and twelve chil- 
dren. 
Homburg, Joe, wife and four chil- 
dren. 
Homburg, William, wife and five 

children 
Hurlbert, Mrs. Victoria, Miss Min- 
nie, Walter and Hattie (all col- 
ored). 



Hass, Professor Carl, and family. 

Johnson, A., and wife. 

Johnson, Dan (colored). 

Jay, J. J. 

Ressner, August, Lena, Emma 

and James H. 
Keats, Miss Tillie. 
X^emere, T., and wife. 
Lisbony, Mrs. W. H., Jr., and Miss 

Eunice, daughter of C. P. 
Lehman, Charles and son. 
Mitchell, W. P. 
McConnelly, H., and wife. 
McGown, Jim. 
McVeagh, Mrs. J. M. 
Manning, Mark. 
Mead, James. 
Neimeier, Henry, wife and five 

children. 
Patterson, H. J. 
Patterson, Miss S. (colored). 
Perkins, Lucy and Lotta (col- 
ored). 
Perkins, Mrs. L., and two children 

(colored). 
Parobich, Michael, wife and four 

children. 
Pruessne, Henry. 
Panleick, Matthew. 
Rose, H., and wife. 
Radeker, Mrs. Herman, and child. 
Rehm, William, wife and two chil- 
dren, 
Reymanscott, Louis. 
Richardson. William, 
Ruther, Robert, wife and six chil- 
dren. 
Steerholz, W., and wife. 
Seible, O. J., Jr. 
Schroeder, Mrs. Lottie A. 
Swan, George, wife and four chil- 
dren. 
Terrell, G., and wife. 
Varnell, James, wife and six chil- 
dren, 
Vuletach, Andrew, wife and 

daughter. 
Warren, Mrs. Flora. 
Wilkinson, George, wife and son. 
Wilson, Mrs, Julia Anna (col- 
ored), 
Zurapanin, Mrs. N., and eight 
children. 



